﴿ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ تُوبُوٓا۟ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ تَوْبَةًۭ نَّصُوحًا عَسَىٰ رَبُّكُمْ أَن يُكَفِّرَ عَنكُمْ سَيِّـَٔاتِكُمْ وَيُدْخِلَكُمْ جَنَّٰتٍۢ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَٰرُ يَوْمَ لَا يُخْزِى ٱللَّهُ ٱلنَّبِىَّ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مَعَهُۥ ۖ نُورُهُمْ يَسْعَىٰ بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَبِأَيْمَٰنِهِمْ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَآ أَتْمِمْ لَنَا نُورَنَا وَٱغْفِرْ لَنَآ ۖ إِنَّكَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ قَدِيرٌۭ ﴾

“O you who have attained to faith! Turn unto God in sincere repentance: it may well be that your Sustainer will efface from you your bad deeds, and will admit you into gardens through which running waters flow, on a Day on which God will not shame the Prophet and those who share his faith: their light will spread rapidly before them, and on their right; [and] they will pray: "O our Sustainer! Cause this our light to shine for us forever, and forgive us our sins: for, verily, Thou hast the power to will anything!"”

In the present world man has been kept in trial conditions and as such he is liable to commit errors. In compensation for this, he must turn towards God in repentance. In essence, true repentance comes from a sense of shame. If a man fully realises his mistake, he will feel ashamed, and this sense of shame will compel him not to indulge in such action in future. That is why a hadith says, ‘Being ashamed is repentance.’ A companion of the Prophet Muhammad said, ‘True repentance is a man turning towards God and then not repeating that action.’ Repentance has to be borne out by actions. It is not just the repetition of some words. ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib saw an individual who, after making a mistake, was simply repeating the words ‘tawbah, tawbah’. ‘Ali said that this was repentance of liars. True tawbah is the light of the Hereafter and false tawbah is the darkness of the Hereafter.