Double Your Towbah – Repent from Delaying Your Repentance!
The great scholar of Islam, Ibn Qayyim al-Jowziyyah [d.752]
(may Allaah have mercy on him) said:
“…And we shall mention some things related to repentance
(towbah) that are very necessary (to grasp), and it is not befitting that
someone be ignorant of them.
From them: Immediate repentance is obligatory after committing a
sin. It is not permissible to delay it. Whenever someone
delays it, he has committed (another) sin by delaying it. In this
case, when he repents from the sin (itself), another act of repentance remains
a duty upon him – that he must repent for delaying his repentance! This
is something that rarely comes to mind when someone
repents. Instead, he may assume that since he has repented from the
sin, that there is nothing else left to do, while there remains upon him the
duty to repent from delaying his repentance…”
Source: Madaarij as-Saalikeen (1/487-488), Daar Taybah’s 2nd
printing, 1425, translated by Moosaa Richardson.
