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Is a comprehensive plea for forgiveness and general remorse for extravagance regarding oneself sufficient for an accepted repentance if the supplicant is unaware that what he committed was a sin, or must he ask scholars to learn whether it is a sin or not, so that his repentance may be valid?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

One who is afflicted with waswasah (obsessive whispering) will not benefit from delving into disagreements. Rather, they should act upon the opinion of those who affirm the validity of general repentance from every sin, whether known or unknown. Thus, they should regret every transgression against the command of Allah. Qadi Abu Bakr Al-Baqillani said: "If I have a sin I do not know, then I repent to Allah from it." Ibn Taymiyyah said: "Whoever makes a general repentance, this repentance necessitates the forgiveness of all sins, even if they do not recall the specific sins." Some scholars are of the view that repentance is not obligatory except after the sin is confirmed, not from something whose sinfulness is doubtful. General seeking of forgiveness (istighfar) and general regret for having wronged oneself are sufficient, and there is no need to make the matter of repentance difficult or to scrutinize it, as this only increases the burden on the one suffering from waswasah.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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