Repentance is expressed in the Qurʾān by the word Taubah (توبة), which the Imām an-Nawawī says means “turning the heart from sin.” (Commentary on Ṣaḥīḥu Muslim, vol. ii. p. 354.) The word frequently occurs in the Qurʾān. For example:—
[Sūrah iv. 20]: “If they repent and amend, then let them be. Verily God relenteth. He is merciful.”
[Sūrah xxv. 71]: “Whoso hath repented and hath done what is right, verily it is he who turneth to God with a true conversion” (matāb).
The teaching of the traditions on the subject of repentance and pardon for sin is in some places exceedingly wild, as will be seen from the following selections taken from the sayings of the Prophet given in the Mishkāt, book x. ch. iii:—
“There was a man of the children of Israel, who killed ninety-nine people, after which he came out, asking if his repentance would be accepted; and having met a monk, he asked him, ‘Is there acceptance for my repentance?’ The monk said, ‘No.’ Then the man killed the monk, and stood asking people about the approval of his repentance. And a man said to him, ‘Come to such a village.’ Then the signs of immediate death were upon him, and he tried to reach the village upon his knees, and died on the way. Then the angels of mercy and punishment disputed about him. Then God ordered the village towards which the man had attempted to go to be near to the corpse; and the village which he had fled from to be far away from him. Then God said to the angels, ‘Compute, and measure the distance between the two villages.’ And it was found that the village towards which he was going was nearer to him by one span. And he was pardoned.”
“An incessant sinner has not sinned that has asked pardon, although he may have sinned seventy times a day, because asking pardon is the coverer of sin.”
“God has said, ‘Verily if you come before Me with sins equal to the dust of the earth, and then come before Me without associating anything with Me, verily I will come before you with the pardon equal to the dust of the earth.’”
“Verily God accepts of the repentance of His servant as long as his soul does not come into his throat.”
“I swear by God that verily I ask pardon of God and repent before Him more than seventy times daily.”
“Verily my heart is veiled with melancholy, and verily I ask pardon of God one hundred times a day.”