Repentance and seeking forgiveness

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah and Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) delivered a long sermon to us (the narrator mentioned the whole hadith in detail). Then, when he (peace and blessings be upon him) was about to come down from the pulpit, a group of the Ansar (may Allah be pleased with them) rushed towards him before he had completely come down from the pulpit and said: "O Messenger of Allah! May our lives be ransomed for you! Who can bear these hardships, and what will life be like after the mention of this (terrifying) day?" The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said to them: "And may my father and mother be ransomed for you! I earnestly pleaded with my Lord, the Blessed and Exalted, concerning my Ummah, and He said to me that the door of repentance is open until the Trumpet is blown." Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever repents a year before his death, Allah will accept his repentance." Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "A year is a lot; whoever repents a month before his death, Allah will accept his repentance." Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "A month is also a lot; whoever repents a week before his death, Allah will accept his repentance." Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "A week is also a lot; whoever repents a day before his death, Allah will accept his repentance." Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "A day is also a lot; whoever repents an hour before his death, Allah will accept his repentance." Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever repents before the death rattle (the gurgling of the throes of death) begins, Allah will accept his repentance." Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) came down from the pulpit, and this was the last sermon he delivered.
Dawud (bin al-Muhabbar) and his teacher (Maysarah) are both well known for fabricating hadith.

It is narrated from Muhammad bin Ka'b al-Qurazi (may Allah have mercy on him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Turn in repentance to your Lord, the Mighty and Majestic, for I myself repent to Him every day seventy times, or more than seventy times."
This narration is mursal; however, its meaning concerning abundant repentance and seeking forgiveness is established and reliable through authentic hadith.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, I repent to Allah Almighty seventy times a day."
This hadith narrated by Imam Abu Ya'la was also related by Abu al-Ash'ath from Mu'tamir through his same route; Imam al-Bazzar also narrated it with his chain, but in it the words "a hundred times" are transmitted instead of seventy.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Allah Almighty is more pleased with the repentance of His servant who has wronged himself excessively (by committing sins) than a man whose mount was lost (during a journey), who then ran about right and left in the effort to search for it until he became exhausted, or despaired completely of finding it; and when he had come near to perishing (from intense thirst and hunger), suddenly his eye fell upon it, and he found his mount in a place where he had no hope at all of finding it. So Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, is more pleased with the repentance of His sinful servant than that man was at finding his mount."
Imam Abu Ya'la narrated it; all the men of its chain are thiqat (trustworthy) and narrators of the two Sahihs.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah bin Abi Sufyan (may Allah be pleased with him) that I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Among those who passed before you there was a man who met a scholar or a worshipper and said to him that he had killed ninety-nine people, purely out of injustice and wrongdoing: do you find any way of repentance for me? He said: No. So that man killed him too. Then he met another man and said that he had killed a hundred souls unjustly: do you find any scope of repentance for me? He replied: If I were to tell you that Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, does not accept the repentance of one who repents, I would certainly have lied. Here there is a place of worship in which some people are occupied in the worship of Allah; go to them and worship Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, together with them; perhaps Allah Almighty will accept your repentance. So he set out towards them, but death overtook him before he reached there. Thereupon the angels of punishment and the angels of mercy disputed. Then Allah Almighty sent an angel (who commanded): Measure the distance between the two places; whichever settlement he is found nearer to, he will be counted among its people. When they measured the distance, they found him nearer to the place of worship of the repentant by the length of a fingertip. So Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, forgave him."
Takhrij: The chain of this hadith is hasan (good), and the basis of this incident is also found in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sat one day and we were with him, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, in the sight of Allah Almighty no sin is so great that He cannot forgive it. Indeed, among the people before you there was a man who had killed ninety-eight people. Then he came to a worshipper and asked him: I have killed ninety-eight souls; do you find any scope of repentance for me? He said: No. So that man killed him too. Then he came to another worshipper and told him that he had killed ninety-nine people: do you find any way of repentance for me? He said: No. So that man killed him too. Then he came to another scholar and informed him that he had killed a hundred souls: do you find any possibility of repentance for me? He said: You have indeed transgressed greatly, and I have no definite knowledge of your case; but here there are two settlements. One of them is called Nadrah, that is, the one of prosperity; its inhabitants do the deeds of the people of Paradise, and no one other than them stays among them. The other settlement is called Kafrah, that is, the one of wretchedness; its residents do the deeds of the people of Hell, and no one other than them stays among them either. So go to the people of Nadrah; if you do deeds like theirs and repent, then never doubt the acceptance of your repentance. So the man set out intending to reach that settlement, until, when he reached the middle point between the two settlements, the time of his death came. So the angels (peace be upon them) asked their Lord about him, and Allah, Majestic and Exalted, said: See which settlement he was nearer to, and write him down among the inhabitants of that settlement. So they found him nearer to the settlement of Nadrah by the length of one fingertip, and they wrote him down among the people of that settlement."
Imam Ahmad narrated this hadith in the Musnad. Its chain contains the narrator Abd al-Rahman bin Ziyad bin An'um al-Ifriqi, who is weak in memory; however, the basis of this incident is narrated in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim from Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him), which serves as a witness for its text and strengthens it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Paradise has eight gates, of which seven gates are (at present) closed, and one gate is open for repentance; it will remain open until the sun rises from its direction (that is, the west)."
Imam Abu Bakr bin Abi Shaybah narrated this hadith, and Imam Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili also narrated it through Abu Bakr bin Abi Shaybah himself.

It is narrated from Ali bin Rabi'ah (may Allah have mercy on him) that Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) seated me behind him on his mount, then he went with me towards a graveyard, then he raised his blessed head towards the sky and recited this supplication: 'Allahumma ighfir li dhunubi innahu la yaghfiru al-dhunuba ahadun ghayruka' (O Allah, forgive me my sins; truly no one forgives sins except You). Then he turned towards me and began to smile, so I said: O Commander of the Believers! You are seeking forgiveness from your Lord and then you look at me and smile? He said: (In fact) the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had seated me behind him on his mount, then he (peace and blessings be upon him) went with me to one side of the Harrah (the stony tract of Madinah), then he (peace and blessings be upon him) raised his blessed head towards the sky and supplicated: "'Allahumma ighfir li dhunubi innahu la yaghfiru al-dhunuba ahadun ghayruka' (O Allah, forgive me my sins, for no one forgives sins except You)." Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) turned towards me and smiled, so I said: O Messenger of Allah! You are both supplicating to your Lord for forgiveness and looking at me and smiling? So he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I smiled because my Lord, the Mighty and Majestic, smiled (in pleasure), for Allah Almighty marvels (being greatly pleased) at this quality of His servant: that he knows and is fully certain that no one besides Me forgives his sins."
This hadith is sahih (authentic) and its narrators are thiqat (trustworthy); Imam Abu Dawud and Imam al-Tirmidhi have also narrated it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came to us while we were sitting (in a gathering), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Never has a morning come upon me in which I did not say 'Astaghfiru Allaha ta'ala' (I seek forgiveness from Allah Almighty) one hundred times."
The chain of this hadith is sahih (authentic), and Imam Abd bin Humayd narrated it in his Musnad.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Hold fast to 'La ilaha illa Allah' (there is no god worthy of worship except Allah) and to seeking forgiveness, and recite them both abundantly; for Iblis said (in regret): I sought to destroy people by (embroiling them in) sins, but they destroyed (thwarted) me with 'La ilaha illa Allah' (there is no god worthy of worship except Allah) and seeking forgiveness. So when I saw this situation, I began to destroy them through desires and innovations, while they think (out of their ignorance) that they are rightly guided."
Imam Abu Ya'la narrated it in his Musnad (3261); its chain contains Abd al-Ghafur bin Sa'id and Uthman bin Matar, who are da'if (weak) narrators, on account of which this narration is weak in its chain according to the hadith scholars.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Umamah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No people sit in a gathering and become engaged there in (worldly or ordinary) talk, then seek forgiveness from Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, before rising from that gathering, except that Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, forgives them the burden of all the talk in which they had been absorbed."
Imam Abu Ya'la mentioned this narration in his Musnad; however, its chain contains a narrator named Ja'far bin al-Zubayr, who is da'if (weak). Nevertheless, the virtue of seeking forgiveness at the end of a gathering is established by other reliable and sahih (authentic) hadith.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah and Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) delivered an eloquent sermon to us, in which he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The true scholar is only the one who acts according to his knowledge, even if his knowledge is little. Do not ever regard any act of disobedience among sins as trivial and insignificant, even if it appears small in your eyes, for with persistence and continuance no sin remains minor, and with repentance and seeking forgiveness no sin remains major. Be aware! Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, will call you to account for your deeds, even to the extent that one of you will be questioned about touching his brother's garment (without need). And know that every servant will be raised on the Day of Resurrection in the state in which death came to him. Indeed, Allah Almighty has created Paradise and Hell; so whoever chooses the Fire over Paradise, may Allah Almighty distance him from His mercy. Beware! Whatever Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, has forbidden, He has made it completely clear to you, so that 'those who live might live after a clear proof (the truth having become manifest) and those who perish might perish after a clear proof' [Surah al-Anfal: 42]."
Imam al-Harith narrated this report in his Musnad; because of narrators such as Dawud bin al-Muhabbar and Maysarah bin Abd Rabbih in its chain, this narration has been judged severely weak and mawdu' (fabricated).

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, every believer has some sin to which he has become accustomed from time to time, or a sin which he does not give up until his death or until the Hour is established upon him. The truth is that the believer has been created such that he falls into trial, makes mistakes abundantly and forgets very much; but when he is admonished, he takes heed."
Takhrij and grading: Imam al-Tabarani narrated this hadith in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir, and Allamah al-Albani (may Allah have mercy on him) declared it sahih (authentic) in Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah.