إنما التوبة على الله للذين يعملون السوء بجهالة ثم يتوبون من قريب فأولئك يتوب الله عليهم · وليست التوبة للذين يعملون السيئات حتى إذا حضر أحدهم الموت قال إني تبت الآن
Innama'l-tawbatu ʿala'llāhi li'lladhīna yaʿmalūna'l-sūʾa bi-jahālatin thumma yatūbūna min qarībin fa-ulāʾika yatūbu'llāhu ʿalayhim, wa kāna'llāhu ʿAlīman Ḥakīmā · Wa laysati'l-tawbatu li'lladhīna yaʿmalūna'l-sayyiʾāti ḥattā idhā ḥaḍara aḥadahumu'l-mawtu qāla innī tubtu'l-āna wa la'lladhīna yamūtūna wa hum kuffār, ulāʾika aʿtadnā lahum ʿadhāban alīmā
"The repentance God will accept is only that of those who do evil in ignorance and then repent soon after. It is these whose repentance God accepts. But there is no repentance for those who go on doing evil deeds until, when death comes to one of them, he says 'now I repent'; nor for those who die as deniers. For these We have prepared a painful punishment."
The seventeenth verse describes the case in which repentance is accepted, the eighteenth the case in which it is not. The two form a pair.
| 17 | 18 | |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | Yaʿmalūna'l-sūʾ — singular, a generic noun | Yaʿmalūna'l-sayyiʾāt — plural |
| Qualification | Bi-jahāla — in ignorance | No qualification |
| Time | Min qarīb — soon, within a short time | Ḥattā idhā ḥaḍara aḥadahumu'l-mawt — until death comes |
| Speech | — | Innī tubtu'l-āna — "now I repent" |
The root ج-ه-ل. And the distinction the lexicographers record must be noted: jahl is not only "ignorance"; it also carries the sense of feeling overpowering the mind, of excess, of acting without thinking. The word jāhiliyya too is explained by this second sense.
This is needed if the verse is to be understood. If jahāla were only "not knowing", the door of repentance would be closed to one who sins knowingly — and that does not fit with other verses of the Qurʾān (al-Zumar 39/53; treated in al-Zumar).
| View | What jahāla is |
|---|---|
| 1 | Not knowing the ruling, not being aware |
| 2 | To act without reckoning the consequence, in a moment of excess — even while knowing |
The second view is widely transmitted in the classical commentaries and is in keeping with the family of senses in the root. I impose no preference.
And the eighteenth verse shows the limit of that nearness: the coming of death. The measure, that is, is not a calendar but a possibility: repentance is what is done while something can still be done.
I record this as an observation about word order: what is rejected is not the content of the repentance but its timing. And the word that states the timing is set inside the sentence. That is, in relating the words the verse also shows the flaw in the words within the same sentence.
No conclusion such as "after a certain sin the door of repentance is closed" follows from these two verses, and this must be written plainly.
One. The verb of the seventeenth verse is yaʿmalūna'l-sūʾ — a generic noun, and it specifies no kind of sin. Two. What is rejected in the eighteenth verse is repentance postponed to the moment of death; no limit is set on repentance made early. Three. Elsewhere the Qurʾān holds the door of repentance widely open (al-Zumar 39/53). No contradiction can be set up between the two verses.
And one further record: no judgement about any person can be drawn from these verses. Which category a person's repentance falls into lies outside human knowledge. The function of the verse is not an instrument of diagnosis but a warning about timing.