Assalaamu alaykum, dear Scholars. If a person made mistakes in his life and is now trying to avoid these mistakes but due to his past mistakes people suspect him, which might torture him and might cause him to lose the determination to avoid mistakes, then what Islamic ruling guides everyone in this type of case?

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. 

First of all, we advise this person to repent to Allah from his past sins, seeking His pleasure, His reward, and His forgiveness.

He should consider Allah as his utmost objective and not care about what people say.

If they reproach him for his previous sins, then he should know that this is a trial and an affliction, so he should be patient for the sake of Allah and advise whoever blames him and clarify to him that he has repented from his previous sins and that whoever repents sincerely, then Allah accepts his repentance. Please refer to fatwa 180205.

He must know and be sure that if his conduct improves and he has good moral behavior and people see that he has changed, then Allah will change their hearts and replace their contempt with praise.

Nonetheless, he should not think about people and what they say, and his repentance should be sincere for the sake of Allah and not in order to gain the praise of the people.

May Allah help us all to sincerely repent to Him.

Allah knows best.