Abu Hurairah says: I heard Allah’s Messenger ﷺ as saying: “By Allah! I ask forgiveness from Allah and turn to Him in repentance more than seventy times a day.”
(Sahih Bukhari)
Life after death is a reality. The chapter of man’s life does not close with his death. He is accountable to his Lord, Creator. As man commits many sins and mistakes, he should seek forgiveness from his Master. Though the Messenger of Allah was sinless, he used to seek forgiveness seventy times a day according to this hadīth and according to another tradition one hundred times. Therein lies the model for every believer.
Ibn Abbas relates that the Messenger said, a person who has taken upon himself to regularly supplicate Allah for forgiveness, Allah provides deliverance from hardship, and grants relief from every sorrow and suffering from a source he cannot even imagine. The Messenger, after finishing his prayers, used to solicit forgiveness (from Allah) three times, and would further recite Astagh-fi-rul-lah three times.
Shaddad bin Aus narrates that the Messenger of Allah said: “The most superior way of asking for forgiveness from Allah is: Allahumma anta Rabbi La-ilaha illa anta, Anta khalaqtani wa ana abduka, wa ana ala ’ahdika wa wa’dikamastat’tu. A’udhubika min sharri ma sana’tu, abu’ulakabini’matikaalaiya, wa abu’ulakabidhanbifaghfirliinnahu la yughfiru-dhdhunuba illa anta. The Messenger added: “If somebody recites it during the day with firm faith in it, and dies on the same day before the evening, he will be from the people of Paradise.”