27. The Arabic word tawbah means 'to return, to come back'. A man's tawbah
after he has sinned means that God's servant, who had turned away from his Master
in disobedience, has repented, and has returned to obedience and service. On
the other hand, tawbah on the part of God means that the attention of the Master,
which had turned away from His erring servant, has once again turned towards
him. In this verse, however, God makes it clear to His servants that tawbah
is acceptable only from those who commit errors inadvertently and out of ignorance.
Such persons will always find the door of God open for them whenever they turn
to Him in repentance.
But this tawbah is not for those who pile sin upon sin throughout their lives
in sheer indifference to God and who cry for pardon as soon as they see the
angel of death approaching. The Prophet (peace be on him) has warned against
this attitude in the following words: 'God accepts the repentance of a slave
until the gurgling (of death) begins.' (Tirmidhi, 'Da'wat', 98; Ibn Majah, 'Zuhd',
30; Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 2, pp. 132 and 153, and vol. 3, pp. 425 -
Ed.) For when the last leaf of a man's book of life has been turned, what opportunity
remains for a man to return to righteous conduct? Likewise, if a person spends
even the very last moment of his life in a state of disbelief and then on the
threshold of the Next Life he comes to discover that the facts are quite contrary
to what he had imagined, what sense is there for him to seek forgiveness?