a Muslim must always remember the Mercy of Allah and the immediate benefits of tawbah, or turning to Allah in repentance.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has said:
"There was a man from among a nation before you who killed ninety-nine people and then made an inquiry about the most learned person on the earth. He was directed to a monk. He came to him and told him that he had killed ninety-nine people and asked him if there was any chance for his repentance to be accepted. He replied in the negative and the man killed him also, making it an even one hundred. He then asked about the most learned man in the earth. He was directed to a scholar. He told him that he had killed one hundred people and asked him if there was any chance for his repentance to be accepted. He [the scholar] replied in the affirmative and asked, `Who stands between you and repentance? Go to such and such land; there [you will find] people devoted to prayer and worship of Allah, join them in worship, and do not come back to your land because it is an evil place.' So he went away and hardly had he covered half the distance when death overtook him. There was a dispute between the angels of mercy and the angels of torment. The angels of mercy pleaded, 'This man has come with a repenting heart to Allah,' while the angels of punishment argued, 'He never did a virtuous deed in his life.' Then there appeared another angel in the form of a human being and the contending angels agreed to make him an arbiter between them. He said, `Measure the distance between the two lands. He will be considered belonging to the land to which he is nearer.' They measured and found him closer to the land (land of piety) where he intended to go, and so the angels of mercy collected his soul."
Another version says: "Allah commanded [the land which the man wanted to leave] to move away and commanded the other land (his destination) to draw nearer, and then He said, ‘Now measure the distance between them.' It was found that he was nearer to his goal by a hand's span and was thus forgiven." (Bukhari and Muslim)
A Muslim must always have hope in Allah’s Mercy and Forgiveness. In fact, it is sinful to despair of Allah’s Mercy. No matter what we might have done in the past, we should always have hope that Allah will accept our tawbah.
If a bad deed is done against Allah, there are three conditions to be met and the person’s tawbah will be accepted:
1. He or she must desist from the action. In the case of missing salat, a person must stop skipping salat and begin to pray the five prayers daily.
2. He or she must regret having done the deed. In this case, we must regret the days that have passed in which we were not performing our compulsory salat.
3. He or she must make firm and sincere intention not to return to the bad deed again. One must be resolved never to leave the obligatory salat again, and Allah alone can give tawfeeq, or the God-given ability to do anything commendable.
Imam Nawawi has adds the following clause:
“If the sin involves a human's right, it requires a fourth condition, i.e., to absolve oneself from such right. If it is a property, he should return it to its rightful owner. If it is slandering or backbiting, one should ask the pardon of the offended.”
