Persistence in Sin (al-'israr ala al-ma'siyah)

This is an evil state, and its opposite is repentance (tawbah). Repeating sins makes them seem ordinary, insignificant, everyday affairs. Therefore, before this happens to one, it is necessary for him to contemplate the vicious outcome of committing sins and examine their harms both in this world and the next. Such contemplation leads him to repent his sins and become genuinely sorry and ashamed that he ever committed them. On the other hand, tawbah or repentance is return from the state of sinfulness. An even higher state of repentance is 'inabah, which is turning away from and giving up even permissible (mubah) things.

In this higher state of repentance one seeks, in speech and act, only to please God, and remember God continuously. A necessary adjunct of tawbah is muhasabah and muraqabah, which means that a sincerely repentant person constantly takes an account of his deeds and gives thought to the moral quality of his actions. There is a tradition that says:

Take account of yourselves before you are taken to account.

Adapted from: "Jami' al-Sa'adat" by: "Muhammad Mahdi al-Naraqi"