The definition of repentance

Question

Major sins are forgiven through repentance (tawba), and abandoning prayer and fasting is a major sin. What, then, is the meaning of making them up (qada)?

Answer

If someone owes a government tax, or money to someone else, with a fixed date of payment, and he does not pay on time — which is an offence for which a case has been brought against him — and he asks for pardon, saying, “I did not pay on time; I ask forgiveness,” then the result is only that the failure to pay on time, that is, the delay, is pardoned; but the money itself is…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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