And so, more than any other time, these days of Ramadan provide a priceless opportunity to come back to Allah, and start over. This process of tawbah, turning back to Allah and seeking His forgiveness, is one of the most vital acts of worship. In fact, it is this act alone, which distinguished Prophet Adam from Iblees (Satan). And it is by this act alone, that some will enter Paradise.
See, we all make mistakes. Even Prophet Adam slipped. And Iblees disobeyed Allah. Prophet Adam worshipped Allah—but so did Iblees. The difference between the two was that when Adam slipped, he realized his desperate need for Allah’s forgiveness, while Iblees showed arrogance and did not repent.
Prophet Muhammad said: "Every descendant of Adam is oft to err, and the best of those who err are those who are oft to repent" [Al-Tirmidhi (2499) & Ibn Mijah (4251)]. And so, Iblees’s mistake wasn’t that he disobeyed Allah. Iblees’s mistake was that he disobeyed Allah and then refused to repent for it. Not only did he refuse to make tawbah, Iblees even blamed Allah for his own mistake: "(Iblees) said: "O my Lord! Because Thou hast put me in the wrong, I will make (wrong) fair-seeming to them on the earth, and I will put them all in the wrong" (Quran 15:39).
In contrast to this, by turning to Allah and realizing our need for His forgiveness and mercy, we actually become more beloved to Him. It was actually after he had made a mistake, realized his need for Allah, and repented, that Adam was sent to earth as a prophet.
In fact Allah, in His infinite mercy, does not just accept our repentance—He loves to forgive. And when we do repent to Allah, He does not just erase our evil deeds, he even transforms them into good deeds: Allah says, "Except those who repent and believe and work righteous deeds, for them Allah will change their evil deeds to good deeds, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful" (Quran 25: 70).
Even more, that forgiveness of Allah has no limit and no bounds. Allah says in the hadith Qudsi: "Oh son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of Me, I would forgive you" [Al-Tirmithi].
We all will sin, make poor choices, and slip. That is a certainty. But the choice is ours. Will we follow the footsteps of the one who repented and had his repentance accepted, or will we follow the one who refused…and became forever cursed?
