Prayer of Repentance: Salat al-Tawba

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

A dear brother of mine is due to get married in December, unfortunately, he went to a prostitute and committed illegal sexual acts. He regrets it very much, even while he was there he wanted to leave.

Please if you could give some prayer for repentance also if you could give some prayer to protect him and us all from our desires and shaitan.

Answer

Allah Most High says, “Turn towards Allah, O believers, every one of you, so that you may be successful.” [Quran, 24:31]

The best repentance is to resolve not to return to such matters, and to turn to Allah, expressing one’s remorse with one’s own heartfelt words.

It is good to make the prayer of repentance:

Abu Bakr (Allah be pleased with him) related from the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) that he said, “There is no one who commits a sin, goes and performs ritual ablutions, and then prays two rak‘as without being heedless after which they seek Allah’s forgiveness except that He forgives them.” [Abu Dawud]

After this, he (peace and blessings be upon him) recited Allah Most High’s words, “And those who, when they do an evil thing or wrong themselves, remember Allah and implore forgiveness for their sins – Who forgives sins save Allah only? – and will not knowingly repeat (the wrong) they did.” [Quran, 3:135]

This has been related by Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi in their respective Sunan, and the scholars declared it to be a recommended prayer. [Ibn Qudama, al-Mughni 1/348; Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar 2/28, quoting Sharh Shir‘at al-Islam via Shaykh Isma‘il al-Nabulsi]

And Allah alone gives success.
[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Faraz Rabbani spent ten years studying with some of the leading scholars of recent times, first in Damascus, and then in Amman, Jordan. His teachers include the foremost theologian of recent times in Damascus, the late Shaykh Adib al-Kallas (may Allah have mercy on him), as well as his student Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi, one of the leading Hanafi fuqaha of the present age. He returned to Canada in 2007, where he founded SeekersGuidance in order to meet the urgent need to spread Islamic knowledge–both online and on the ground–in a reliable, relevant, inspiring, and accessible manner. He is the author of: Absolute Essentials of Islam: Faith, Prayer, and the Path of Salvation According to the Hanafi School (White Thread Press, 2004.) Since 2011, Shaykh Faraz has been named one of the 500 most influential Muslims by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.