Repentance

Repentance for the evil done should have so much efficacy that the angel of the ‘left’ side (who records one’s sins according to Islamic belief) may remain suspended for 20 years. This means that after repentance one must at least of a period of 20 years scrupulously shun the committing of a sin and thus dispense with the necessity of recording them by the relative angel altogether. This must not, however, be taken to mean that penitence is rendered a spent force on the expiry of 20 years so that the man becomes free to commit sin thereafter. Emphatically no. It is a truism that the mind of one who has abstained from committing a sin for 20 years, is so much purified that it will spurn even the idea of committing a sin, not to say of being actually tempted to commit one. For argument’s sake, even if it is conceded that a penitent regains freedom to commit a sin after the expiry of 20 years, it should not, however, mean that he is bound to exercise such freedom. The course of action pursued by him continuously or incessantly for 20 years will destroy the very root of incentive in which the sin has its origin, and even the ‘self’ in him would not be able to disturb his resolution.

Repentance for the evil done should have so much efficacy that the angel of the ‘left’ side (who records one’s sins according to Islamic belief) may remain suspended for 20 years. This means that after repentance one must at least of a period of 20 years scrupulously shun the committing of a sin and thus dispense with the necessity of recording them by the relative angel altogether. This must not, however, be taken to mean that penitence is rendered a spent force on the expiry of 20 years so that the man becomes free to commit sin thereafter. Emphatically no. It is a truism that the mind of one who has abstained from committing a sin for 20 years, is so much purified that it will spurn even the idea of committing a sin, not to say of being actually tempted to commit one. For argument’s sake, even if it is conceded that a penitent regains freedom to commit a sin after the expiry of 20 years, it should not, however, mean that he is bound to exercise such freedom. The course of action pursued by him continuously or incessantly for 20 years will destroy the very root of incentive in which the sin has its origin, and even the ‘self’ in him would not be able to disturb his resolution.