Ash-Shuraa · Makki · ayah 25 of 53

Ash-Shuraa 42:25

وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِى يَقْبَلُ ٱلتَّوْبَةَ عَنْ عِبَادِهِۦ وَيَعْفُوا۟ عَنِ ٱلسَّيِّـَٔاتِ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا تَفْعَلُونَ

“And it is He who accepts repentance from His servants and pardons misdeeds, and He knows what you do.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The One who knows everything you have done takes back the servant who returns, wiping the past like tracks under the wind.

A reflection

The uncle's list from 1998

And it is He who accepts repentance from His servants, and pardons misdeeds, and knows what you do. One commentary notices how the three parts fit together. He accepts repentance for what lies ahead, pardons the misdeeds that lie behind, and knows everything you have done, said and made. And, it adds, despite that knowledge, He turns to whoever turns to Him.

That last point is what makes the ayah breathtaking. Forgiveness from someone who does not know the full story is cheap. Forgiveness from the One who knows every detail, every motive, every repetition, is something else entirely.

Picture an uncle who, at every family gathering, eventually recites the same list. Everything his younger brother has done wrong since 1998. The money borrowed, the wedding missed, the remark at their mother's funeral. He knows every item by heart. He has forgiven none of it, though his brother has apologised more than once. The list has outlived their mother, two houses and most of their hair.

The ego keeps records like that. It finds it hard to accept an apology, because accepting means letting go of the leverage. And the more we know about someone's faults, the harder it gets.

Allah knows infinitely more about each of us than the uncle knows about his brother. And it is He who accepts repentance. Not grudgingly, not with a list kept in reserve. The ayah sets His knowledge right beside His pardon, as if to say: I know all of it, and I still take you back.

Someone may object that a God who knows everything about you could never truly let it go. But that is our limitation, not His. We cannot forget, so we struggle to forgive. He does not need to forget in order to pardon. His pardon is greater than our sin.

Ask yourself whose list you are still keeping.

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.