It is narrated from Sayyiduna Uqbah bin Amir (may Allah be pleased with him) that a man came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), one of us commits a sin. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "It is written in his record of deeds." He said: Then he seeks forgiveness for it and repents. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "He is forgiven and his repentance is accepted." He said: Then he commits the sin again. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "It is written (again), and Allah Almighty does not tire (of forgiving) until you yourselves tire (of repenting)." This hadith has a sahih (authentic) chain of narration, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, Allah Almighty forgives His servant - or (he said) accepts His servant's repentance - as long as his death rattle has not begun (that is, until the throes of death set in and the gurgling in the throat begins)." This hadith has a sahih (authentic) chain of narration, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Dharr al-Ghifari (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, Allah Almighty forgives His servant as long as the 'barrier' has not come about." It was said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), what is the barrier? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "That a person dies while he is a polytheist." This hadith has a sahih (authentic) chain of narration, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

Abd al-Rahman bin al-Baylamani says: I heard a man from among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Whoever repents to Allah even one day before he dies, Allah will accept his repentance." He said: Then I mentioned this to another Companion of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and he asked: Did you hear this yourself? I said: Yes. He said: I bear witness that I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Whoever repents half a day before he dies, Allah will accept his repentance." The narrator says: Then I mentioned this to yet another Companion of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and he asked: Did you hear this? I said: Yes. He said: I bear witness that I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Whoever repents a forenoon's span (dahwah) before he dies, Allah will accept his repentance." The narrator says: Then I mentioned this to yet another Companion of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and he asked: Did you hear this? I said: Yes. He said: I bear witness that I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Whoever repents before the gurgling (the death rattle) begins, Allah will accept his repentance."

It is narrated from one of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that he heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "By the One in whose Hand is my soul! Any person who repents one day before he dies, Allah will certainly accept his repentance." The narrator says: Then I told this to (another) Companion of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and he too narrated it in full, exactly like the hadith of Hisham.

It is narrated from Sufyan al-Thawri (may Allah have mercy on him) that he wrote to Abd al-Rahman bin al-Baylamani asking him about a hadith he narrated from his father, and he wrote back: His father told him that he sat in a gathering of a group of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and one of them said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Whoever repents to Allah a year before his death, Allah will accept his repentance." At this another one asked: Did you hear this yourself from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)? He said: Yes. He said: I too have heard it. Then another said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Whoever repents to Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, one day before his death, Allah will accept his repentance." Another asked: Did you hear this yourself from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)? He said: Yes. He said: I too have heard it. Then another said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Whoever repents to Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, one hour before his death, Allah will accept his repentance." Another asked: Did you hear this yourself from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)? He said: Yes. He said: I too have heard it. Then another said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Whoever repents before the gurgling (the death rattle) begins, Allah will accept his repentance." Although Sufyan bin Sa'id is a greater hafiz of hadith than al-Darawardi and Hisham bin Sa'd, he did not mention in this hadith that he heard it directly from Ibn al-Baylamani or from Zayd bin Aslam; rather, he mentioned it by way of permission (ijazah) and correspondence. Therefore, in this matter the word of those who narrated it with the chain "Zayd bin Aslam from Ibn al-Baylamani from a man among the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)" is more reliable. And Abdullah bin Nafi' al-Madani, in his narration from Hisham bin Sa'd, made the name of this Companion clear: he is Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with them both).

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever repents a year before his death, his repentance will be accepted," until he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "a month before," until he said: "a week before," until he said: "a day before," until he said: "an hour before," until he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "as long before as the interval between two milkings of a she-camel (that is, a brief moment, his repentance will be accepted)." The narrator says: I said: Subhanallah! Has Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, not said: "And repentance is not (accepted) for those who keep doing evil deeds until, when death comes to one of them, he says: Now I repent" [Surah al-Nisa: 18] ? Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I am only narrating to you what I heard from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "An obligatory prayer until the next prayer, and Jumu'ah until the next Jumu'ah, and the month until the next month - that is, from Ramadan to Ramadan - are an expiation for the sins committed between them." The narrator says: Then after that he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Except for three things (which are not forgiven through them): associating partners with Allah, breaking the pledge, and abandoning the Sunnah. Breaking the pledge means that you give your pledge of allegiance to the imam, then turn against him and fight him with your sword; and abandoning the Sunnah means leaving the Jama'ah (the main body of Muslims)." This hadith has a sahih (authentic) chain of narration, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

Sayyiduna Ubayd bin Umayr narrates from his father (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said during the Farewell Hajj: "Behold! The friends of Allah are those who pray, who establish the five prayers that have been made obligatory upon them, who fast Ramadan seeking reward and considering it a duty owed by them, who pay the zakah of their wealth willingly, and who avoid the major sins that Allah has forbidden." Then a man asked him (peace and blessings be upon him): O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), what are the major sins? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "They are nine: associating partners with Allah, killing a believer unjustly, fleeing from the battlefield, consuming the wealth of an orphan, consuming usury (riba), slandering a chaste woman, disobeying Muslim parents, and treating as lawful the violation of the sanctity of the Sacred House, which is your qiblah in life and in death." Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever dies without having committed these major sins, and he kept establishing the prayer and paying the zakah, will be with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in a house whose doors are made of gold." This hadith has a sahih (authentic) chain of narration, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The person who wept out of fear of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, will not enter the Fire, until milk returns into the udder; and the dust of the path of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, and the smoke of Hell can never gather together in the nostrils of a Muslim." This hadith has a sahih (authentic) chain of narration, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.