How to repent? Repent of what, to whom, why, when, and how? , by Abû Hâmid Al-Ghazâlî - Sincere and permanent repentance in Islam: its premises, its conditions of validity, its fruits. Translation of the book "Kitâbu At-Tawbah" (كتاب التوبة), by Aoun Mohamed

La Tawba: Arabic word which means return, applied to religion, means the return to God: repentance. Man returns to God for many reasons, because they have ignored, forgotten or even denied him. Because he disobeyed her or didn't do enough or not enough in his worship, or because he didn't go far enough in seeking her love.

The Tawba (repentance) includes several conditions related to the one who repents as well as the nature of the sin or the failure and this in the present, in the past and in the future.

Permanent repentance is the tawba of people whose hearts are alive, it is never to stop at any level of faith and practice, but to constantly elevate oneself. In Muslim spirituality, there is no there is no stagnation: we advance or we retreat.

God loves people who repent. He said: "O my servants who have committed excesses to your own detriment, do not despair of the mercy of God. For God forgives all sins. Yes, He is the Forgiving, the Most Merciful" (Qur'an, 11 /90). And in a hadith the Prophet says: "He who repents of a sin, it is as if he had not committed it".

In this book, with an excellent pedagogy, Imam Al-Ghazâlî deals with how repentance in Islam as well as its definition, its reality, its conditions, its causes, its signs, and its fruits but also its plagues and their remedies . It is a key that allows you to overcome the obstacles of despair born of sins and failures and that opens the doors to God and to bliss.