A Book of Second Chances
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Welcome. Have you ever felt that you have done something so wrong that Allah could never forgive you?
About eight hundred years ago, in Damascus, Damascus, there lived a great scholar named Ibn Qudamah. He was one of the most important jurists of his school of law. He wrote huge volumes on Islamic rulings. And he also fought, as a soldier, in the army of Salah al-Din.
But among all his serious works, he wrote one small, tender book. He called it The Book of the Penitents. The book of those who turned back.
In it, he collected stories of repentance, beginning with Adam, the first human being, and continuing through the prophets, the companions, and ordinary men and women, right up to his own time.
He opens with words of praise. All praise to Allah, he writes, who opened the door of repentance for His servants, and stretches out His hand at night to accept the repentance of the one who sinned by day, and stretches out His hand by day to accept the repentance of the one who sinned by night.
Some of these stories are authentic, from the Prophet ﷺ himself. Others are reports that the editors say are weaker, and we will tell them gently. But they all carry the same message: no one is ever too far to come home.
