Repentance in Surah AlFurqan

إِلَّا مَن تَابَ وَآمَنَ وَعَمِلَ عَمَلًا صَالِحًا فَأُولَٰئِكَ يُبَدِّلُ اللَّهُ سَيِّئَاتِهِمْ حَسَنَاتٍ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ غَفُورًا رَّحِيمًا

Unless he repents, believes, and works righteous deeds, for Allah will change the evil of such persons into good, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful,

وَمَن تَابَ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَإِنَّهُ يَتُوبُ إِلَى اللَّهِ مَتَابًا

And whoever repents and does good has truly turned to Allah with an (acceptable) conversion;-

These two verses are interesting to me because of the repetition of the words تاب وعمل صالحا (Repent and does good). The previous verses were talking about someone who had associated a partner with God, killed a human life, or commited adultery. And one who does either of these will surely get what he deserves for doing so. EXCEPT. Except who? The one who repents, believes, and does good actions. This is the first verse above. He who repents, meaning he regrets his mistake, and who believes, meaning he realizes what he did was wrong and believes that he should obey his God, and does righteous actions, meaning he immediately replaces his mistake with something good. Once he takes these steps what will God do? God will then replace his sins with rewards. So just as the person replaces his bad with good, God will similarly replace his sin with reward. 

And there is more. The next verse reiterates that this person then repented and did good. Why the repetition and what's the difference? This brings up the meaning of true repentance. Now that the person already realized his mistake, regretted it, and did something good, now he has to CONTINUE his righteous path. How? He repents again, but this time meaning he does not go back to the mistake and avoids ever going back to it ever again. And what else does he do? He does good. But interestingly God does not specify what good this person does in this verse. He does not say "does good actions" , but rather He says "does good", so it is more vague than the first verse. This gives the implication that this person didn't just do a good action after his mistake, but now this person is living a righteous life, a good life. Everything he gets into is goodness. He does goodness, speaks goodness, befriends goodness, encourages goodness, etc. The second verse thus emphasizes the lifestyle this person had after his repentance. And what is his reward for this? God says "then he will have truly repented" meaning that God will surely forgive him completely. 

May we have the strength to not only repent after our mistakes, but to also continue living a righteous lifestyle after. Ameen.