Hadrat Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ said: “Hadrat Abû Bekr ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ always told the truth. I heard him say that Rasûlullah had stated: ‘If a person who has committed a sin repents and performs abdast and then performs namâz and then says istighfâr for that sin of his, Allâhu ta’âlâ will certainly forgive him; Allâhu ta’âlâ declares in the hundred and ninth âyat of Sûrat-un-Nisâ: ‘If a person commits a sin or torments himself and then repents and says istighfâr, he will find Allâhu ta’âlâ very merciful and forgiving’.” Rasûlullah said in a hadîth: “If a person commits a sin and then makes tawba, this tawba of his becomes an atonement for his sin. That is, it causes him to be forgiven.” He stated in a hadîth: “If the sinful person says istighfâr and repents, then does that sin again, then says istighfâr and repents again, and then does it a third time and repents again, it will be written down as a grave sin when he commits it the fourth time.”