40:3 Forgiver of sins and Accepter of repentance and Intense in punishment and Possessor of boons.
Bounty and generosity demanded that repentance be posterior and forgiveness prior: "If I had said that I accept repentance, then I forgive sins, people would fancy that God would not forgive until the servant repented. But first I forgive, then I accept repentance, so that the world's folk will know that just as I forgive through repentance, I also forgive without repentance. If repentance were prior, forgiveness would be posterior and repentance would be the cause of forgiveness. But Our forgiveness has no cause and Our act has no contrivance. First I forgive and make the servant pure with the clear water of bounteousness so that, when he steps onto My carpet, he will step with purity. When he comes to Us, he comes with that attributes of purity."
This is just what He says in another place: "Then We turn to them so that they will repent [9:118]. I am Forgiver of those disobedient acts of which he did not repent, and I am Accepter of him who repents."
What is meant by forgiveness of sins here is the forgiveness of the sins of those who have not repented, because He brought the conjunction "and" in the middle. The first phrase is one thing, and the phrase added to it is something else, though they have the same ruling property. Thus you say, "Zayd and ʿAmr came to me." Zayd is one person, and ʿAmr is someone else, but the two have the same ruling property in their coming. If the ruling property were different, that conjunction would be a mistake, and if the two were identical, mentioning both would be a mistake.
Listen to a beautiful subtlety concerning the forgiveness of sins and the acceptance of repentance: First He mentioned His own attributes and said, "Forgiver of sins and Accepter of repentance." His attributes are not the locus of intervention, nor do they accept change and alteration. Then, when He spoke of punishment, He said "Intense in punishment." He made severe the attribute of punishment, and punishment is a locus of modification, so it accepts change and alteration. He is saying: "I am hard in punishment, but if I want to be, I am soft and I change it, for it has room for modification and it accepts change and alteration."
It has also been said that Intense in punishment alludes to the kingdom. If He should eliminate the entire kingdom of the cosmos, his majesty and perfection would receive no deficiency or incapacity. Forgiver of sins and Accepter of repentance alludes to the attributes, and there is never any change or alteration in His attributes.
It has also been said that Forgiver of sins is for the wrongdoers, Accepter of repentance is for the moderate, Intense in punishment is for the associators, and Possessor of boons is for the preceders.
The Lord's custom is to strike fear into the servants through verses of threat so that the servants therein will be broken and pounded and will show burning and need in servanthood and put weeping and lowliness into themselves. Then the Exalted Lord, in the attribute of clemency and mercy, attends to their hearts with verses of promise and gives news to them of His bounty and mercy. Do you not see that He says edHHHIntense in punishment so that the servants would come to weeping and pleading, and He joins it with Possessor of boons to bring the servants to joy and rest? The servants burn and melt when they hear Intense in punishment and say with the tongue of brokenness,
"My eyes full of water, my liver full of fire,
my hands full of wind, my head full of dust!"
Then, when they hear Possessor of boons, they become joyful and their hearts light up. They say with the tongue of boasting,
"What does the Throne do that it does not carry my saddlecloth?
In my heart I carry the saddlecloth of Your ruling and decree."
One day Abū Bakr Shiblī was walking like a strutting warrior and saying, "'If there were between You and me oceans of fire, I would dive into them.' If in this road there were a hundred thousand oceans of fire, I would pass them over my eyes and have no fear." The next day he was seen coming with his head cast down like one helpless and deprived and saying softly, "'Help from You in You!' I lament at Your decree, I ask protection from Your severity! I have no repose with You, and my work has no order without You. I have neither the cheek to return to You, nor the gall to flee.
"If I return, I see no status,
if I flee, I have no road."
It was said to him, "O Shiblī! What was that yesterday, and what is this today?"
He said, "Yes, when an owl has never seen a peacock, it brags about beauty. But an owl is an owl, and a peacock a peacock."