Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: I have not heard anyone else recite this phrase more frequently than the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "I seek forgiveness from Allah and turn to Him in repentance."

(Imam Ibn Hibban, may Allah have mercy on him, says:) The Noble Mustafa (peace and blessings be upon him) used to seek forgiveness from his Lord in various circumstances, as we have mentioned, even though Allah Almighty had already forgiven his past and future sins. There can be two meanings to the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) seeking forgiveness. One is that Allah Almighty sent him as a teacher for his people in both word and deed, so he would invite his Ummah to seek forgiveness and to be regular in it, because he knew that his Ummah would often fall into sins. Thus, they would continue to act upon the practice of seeking forgiveness. The second meaning is that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would seek forgiveness for himself regarding any shortcoming in performing good deeds. He did not seek forgiveness from sins, because Allah Almighty kept him pure (from sins) among all His creation, and He accepted his supplication regarding the (innate) devil that is with everyone, until he became a Muslim. So, the situation is such that this was included in the character of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He would act regularly in obedience to Allah Almighty. He would not discontinue it, to the extent that sometimes, due to being engaged in another good deed, he would not be able to perform a particular good deed, and that good deed would be missed by him. Just as, due to being busy, he could not perform the two rak‘ahs after Dhuhr, because a delegation from the tribe of Tamim had come and he was distributing wealth among them and providing them with mounts. Because of this, the two rak‘ahs after Dhuhr were missed by him, so he performed them after ‘Asr. After that, he continued to perform those rak‘ahs regularly at that time. So, the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) seeking forgiveness was regarding the shortcoming in good deeds, that due to being busy, he could not perform them at their prescribed time, and he was engaged in other good deeds which, at that time, were more necessary than the ones he regularly performed. It was not that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sought forgiveness from sins that he had committed.