Sufism

Repentance (tawba) is the first station on the Sufi path

Because the Arabic root of tawba means "to return," al-Qushayri treats repentance less as a single act of remorse than as a reorientation of direction that every later station in the path depends on.

Al-Qushayri's Al-Risala al-Qushayriyya, written in the eleventh century as a defense and systematic summary of orthodox Sufism, opens its treatment of the path with tawba precisely because the Arabic root means "to return": repentance here is less a single confession of guilt than a reorientation of the traveler's whole attention, away from the self and back toward God. Al-Qushayri distinguishes levels within it: repentance from outright sin is the entry-level form available to beginners, but he also describes a more advanced form practiced by those already on the path, who "repent" even from good deeds done with a divided or self-interested intention. Positioning tawba as the first station signals that everything that follows, renunciation, patience, trust, love, is built on top of this initial reorientation, and without it the rest of the path has no direction to travel in.

Al-Risala al-Qushayriyya

Written about in

• What Sufism says about habit and discipline

  Qushayri opens the stations with tawba because the Arabic root means to return: this is a change of direction, not a confession. He also describes an advanced form practised by people already on the path, who repent from good deeds done with a divided intention, so the first station is never a step you finish with.