If repentance suffices for a sin, why is it punished?

Question

Are sins forgiven through repentance? And if they are forgiven, why in former times, that is, in the time of the noble Companions, were people given punishments? Could they not repent? And if they could repent — and many people did repent — why were they stoned (rajm)? In Tabligh-i Din (translated by Mawlana ‘Ashiq Ilahi) it is written that if a person commits a sin and also keeps publicising it, it has come in a hadith that this sin will never be forgiven. Can such sins be forgiven in any way?

Answer

When repentance is made in accordance with its conditions, it will be accepted and the sins will be forgiven. But where the Sacred Law has laid down for sins both a worldly punishment (hadd) and torment in the Hereafter, the worldly punishment (hadd) is not lifted merely by repenting; thus in Fath al-Qadir.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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