Al-Furqan · Makki · ayah 70 of 77

Al-Furqan 25:70

إِلَّا مَن تَابَ وَءَامَنَ وَعَمِلَ عَمَلًا صَـٰلِحًا فَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ يُبَدِّلُ ٱللَّهُ سَيِّـَٔاتِهِمْ حَسَنَـٰتٍ ۗ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ غَفُورًا رَّحِيمًا

“Except for those who repent, believe and do righteous work. For them Allāh will replace their evil deeds with good. And ever is Allāh Forgiving and Merciful.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Straight after the three gravest sins comes 'except': repentance does not merely erase them, it lets Allah exchange them for good.

A reflection

He has always been Forgiving, Merciful

The ayah ends with Allah describing Himself: wa-kāna Allāhu ghafūran raḥīman. One concise commentary explains the little verb kāna. It does not mean 'He was', once, in the past. It means He has never ceased to be so. Forgiving and Merciful is not a mood He entered for this occasion. It is who He has always been.

That sentence quietly dismantles two forms of pride.

The first is the pride of the person who cannot forgive himself. It sounds like humility: my sin is too great, I am beyond help. Look at what it actually claims. It claims that one human failure is bigger than a forgiveness that has never ceased. It puts the self at the centre even in its guilt. The ego would rather be the worst sinner in the world than an ordinary one who is forgiven.

The second is the pride of the person who resents someone else being forgiven. The neighbour with the past, the convert with the history, the relative who 'got religious'. The ego wants its own record to count for more. This ayah puts all three great sins and their exchange in a single sentence, and leaves no room for that ranking.

A sceptic may ask whether it is self-flattering for God to call Himself forgiving. Or whether He needs people's repentance at all. He does not. He is free of all need (35:15). Sahih Muslim records that Allah is more joyful at a servant's repentance than a traveller who finds his lost camel in the desert. The joy is His gift, not His need.

His naming of Himself here is not boasting. It is information, given to the one person who most needs it: the one about to give up.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.