al-Tawba li-Ibn Asakir
- Author died
- 571 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ibn Ḥazm
al-Tawba (The Repentance), also known as al-Majlis al-thani wa-l-thalathun fi al-tawba (The Thirty-Second Dictation Session on Repentance), is a short hadith compilation by the Damascene hadith scholar and historian Abu al-Qasim Ibn Asakir (499–571 AH / 1105–1176 CE) dedicated to narrations concerning the merit and necessity of repentance in Islam.
Composition and Transmission
The work originated as the thirty-second dictation session (majlis) delivered from the dictations and transmissions of Ibn Asakir. It was transmitted through direct reading (qira'a) to him while an auditor was listening in the month of Safar in the year 550 AH. In this assembly, Ibn Asakir provided the continuous chains of transmission (isnad) tracing each text back to prophetic figures and early authorities, drawing on transmissions he received from scholars across major Islamic centers such as Baghdad, Isfahan, and Nishapur.
Structure and Contents
The monograph consists of fifteen numbered narrations comprising prophetic hadiths, statements of the Companions and Successors (athar), and concluding poetic verses:
- Prophetic hadiths: The primary portion focuses on the acceptance of repentance, God's boundless mercy, and divine joy over a servant's return. Notable narrations include the story of the man who murdered one hundred people and attained divine forgiveness upon sincere repentance; the extension of God's grace by night and day until the sun rises from the west; God's joy over repentance being greater than a traveler recovering lost provisions in a desert or an infertile parent conceiving; the Prophet's regular practice of seeking repentance a hundred times daily; the acceptance of repentance before the death rattle (al-gharghara); the rule that التائب من الذنب كمن لا ذنب له ("The one who repents from sin is like one who has no sin"); and the assurance that when a servant repents, God causes the guardian angels and the earth to forget the recorded misdeeds.
- Athar: Non-prophetic reports include an exhortation by Ali ibn Abi Talib on genuine virtue and making amends for sins through repentance, and an exegesis by Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib defining the constantly penitent servant (al-awwab) as one who repeatedly sins and repeatedly returns in repentance.
- Poetry: The tract concludes with didactic verses transmitted through Ibn Abi al-Dunya warning against heedlessness and procrastination in repentance before death arrives.
Publication
The text was edited and annotated by Abu Abd Allah Mish'al ibn Bani al-Jibrin al-Mutayri and published in a single volume collection of five short treatises by Ibn Asakir by Dar Ibn Hazm in Beirut (first edition, 1422 AH / 2001 CE).
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