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Why did Allah Almighty use the preposition "عن" (an - from/on behalf of) instead of "من" (min - from) in His saying: "Indeed, Allah accepts repentance from His servants" (إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَقْبَلُ التَّوْبَةَ عَنۡ عِبَادِهِۦ)?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The text of the noble verse is: "And it is He who accepts repentance from His servants and pardons sins, and He knows what you do." The use of "عن" (from/away from) instead of "من" (from) in "يَقْبَلُ التَّوْبَةَ عَنْ عِبَادِهِ" (He accepts repentance away from His servants) means that the repentance has moved beyond the servant and separated from him, and Allah has accepted it. This indicates an exaggeration in acceptance and non-rejection of repentance. The sentence includes four exaggerations: its nominal structure, its use of a relative pronoun, its use of the present tense, and the transitive verb being complemented by "عن".

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

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