Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- Reading your question gives the reflection that you are along the path of repentance and we implore Allah to accept your repentance and to reward you generously.
2- You should never lose hope of gaining Allah’s mercy. As you have indeed committed a major sin, you should repent very seriously and immediately. Rush to Allah and beseech Him to forgive you.
3- If you had extra martial affairs with the person you married and then you both repented sincerely for your heinous sin, then you will be forgiven.
Responding to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
Allah Almighty says in the Qur’an, “Say: ‘O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.'” (Az-Zumar: 53)
He says also “Allah accepts the repentance of those who do evil in ignorance and repent soon afterwards; to them will Allah turn in mercy: For Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom.” (An-Nisa’: 17)
If you had extra martial affairs with the person you married and then you both repented sincerely for your heinous sin, then you will be forgiven.
Allah says, “Didn’t they know that it is Allah who accepts repentance of His servants and forgives sins?” (At-Tawbah: 104).
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Allah accepts the repentance of a person as long as death has not reached his collar bone (i.e., as long as it is not done in the last pangs of death ).” (Ahmad)
Sincere repentance, however, is not simply saying, “Lord, forgive me”, “I ask forgiveness of Allah.”
Sincere repentance involves experiencing within oneself a profound sense of guilt for having disobeyed Allah and for the terrible sin one has committed.
Secondly, one should totally refrain from approaching that sin as well as from such associations and circumstances that may led him/her to it; thirdly, one must be resolved never to repeat the same in the future, and finally, one must also do whatever he/she can to wipe out the past sins by engaging in good works as much as possible.
Once the above procedures are followed, we can look forward to Allah’s forgiveness for He is certainly All-Merciful and All-Forgiving.
Having said this, it is important to point out that if a person has sinned in the past, he/she must continue to be vigilant, and remember that Allah Sees all that we do. The person should try to visualize heaven and hell as if they are in front of them. That is the only way to check one’s carnal desires.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.
Source: Excerpted, with slight modifications, from: www.muslims.ca