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Fatwa CenterA General Repentance Is Enough for Previous Sins
Question
I’ve done most of sins in the past, and last tear I started practicing Islam again. I’ve made a general tawbah/repentance for all of my sins and every time I remember a specific sin I did in the past I make tawbah for that too. The problem is, I get overwhelmed with making tawbah sometimes. I try to think of all of the sins I’ve done in the past and try to repent for each one and it’s gets exhausting and repetitive sometimes. Another example is, if I do a sin I’ll make tawbah for it and that will be the end of it, so I think. But then maybe a couple weeks later that same sin continues to haunt me and even though I didn’t commit the sin again, I make tawbah for the sin again. So basically I’ve made tawbah for the same sin lots of times. Another thing is everyday I try to think of all the sins I’ve done and at the end of the day when I get home from school around Maghreb time I try to make tawbah for each sin I can think of. Is this an innovation to do this everyday? I feel bad because I know tawbah is the one of The biggest forms of mercy that Allah gave us. And I know the best of those who sin are the ones who repent from them. But I just feel like I make tawbah too much and I go to extreme and try to make tawbah for EVERY single sin I’ve done even if I’ve already made tawbah for it before. Please help I really need a solution to this. My past sins keep haunting me and I make tawbah for them so many times. Should I just make another general tawbah for all of my past sins again and just leave it at that? I don’t know what to do.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
The religion of Allah is easy. Allah Almighty and His Prophet forbade us from exaggeration.
Therefore, beware of this exaggeration that keeps you away from the tolerant spirit of Islam. As long as you have repented from all your sins a general repentance and you are determined to remain steadfast on the religion of Islam, then you are neither required to renew your repentance nor to endeavor to remember every sin that you have committed. Rather, the repentance you made is sufficient to wipe out all your previous sins.
Hence, remain steadfast on the Sharee’ah of Allah, and if you sin again, then you should repent.
Holding oneself into account by remembering the sins and repenting from them is good as long as it does not lead to exaggeration that leads to becoming possessed by whispers. Therefore, you have to repent a general repentance and this is sufficient -Allah willing -as stated by the scholars.
For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 360250, 354151 and 177059.
Allah knows best.
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