Mere verbal repentance does not account for a true tawba.

The literal meaning of tawba is 'to return' or 'to retreat'.

However, that tawba should be sincere and true.

Today, the main sources of the word tawba are the Qur'an and the Hadith.

The first of the maqaamat is Tawba.

Like Quran, the Hadith also mentions and stresses the issue of tawba.

According to Islamic sharia, a sincere tawba is always accepted by Allah.

A sincere tawba has some criteria.

Thus tawba signifies sincere and faithful repentance, free from pretense and hypocrisy.

Since the issue of tawba or repentance arises from Islamic religious context, it can be understood well when discussed from that perspective.

All of these conditions essentially convey the message that tawba, in its purest form, consists of forgetting one's sin.

According to Islamic Sharia, when an act of tawba is performed by a Muslim, Allah generally accepts it.

Hazrat Ali was asked as to what is tawba, and he replied that tawba consists of six elements:

In Islamic sharia, tawba is a twofold approach: a person first should be able to recognize and forsake his/her sins upon which Allah promises to forgive them.

The Battle of Hunayn is one of only two battles mentioned in the Qur'an by name, in Sura Tawba.

Because Qur'an and Hadith repeatedly mention and emphasize the act of atoning for one's misdeeds, tawba is of immense importance in Islamic tradition.

The basic principles and virtues taught at Madyan's school in Bidjaya were repentance (tawba), asceticism (zuhd), paying visits to other masters, and service to experienced masters.

Although the number and order of maqaamat are not universal the majority agree on the following seven: Tawba, Wara', Zuhd, Faqr, Ṣabr, Tawakkul, and Riḍā.

He repeatedly asks Muslims to do Tawba (to be penitent for past sins and to retreat from wrong ways of life-leading) and to come back to the right path leaving the wrong one.

According to the narration of Quran and Hadith, Allah's overarching mercy permits even the gravest sins to be pardoned by Him, provided the wrongdoer intends a sincere tawba.

Al-Ghazali, a prolific sufi theologian, wrote that Tawba is the repentance of a sin with the promise that it will not be repeated and that the sinner will return to God.

Muslim scholars agree upon the fact that if a person is not ashamed of his past misdeeds, or does not intent to forsake those, then his verbal announcement of tawba is an open mockery of repentance.

Ibn Arabi, a Sufi mystic and philosopher who had tremendous influence on post 13th century Islamic thought, spent a great deal of time exploring what religious as well as spiritual authorities identified as being the three conditions of human tawba.

For those believers who have wronged themselves, the Qur'an asks them to become repentant, seek Allah's forgiveness, and make a sincere tawba, and assures them that if they do this, Allah will forgive them, and exonerate them from their misdeeds:

This would be an indication of honesty and piety and if the sinner repents and vows never to commit such an act of sin again (Tawba Nasuha), then their punishment of the lashes or the stoning would acquit them of the sin they had committed on the day of judgement.