Continues to commit sins and prays
13-12-2004 | IslamWeb
Question:
If someone commits sins everyday and he prays five times a day and the next he lives commit sins would Allaah forgive and grant paradise?
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
Indeed Allaah forgives all the sins if a person repents to Him even if one has associated partners to Him. But if a person does not repent, then Allaah may forgive him if He so wishes and He may not forgive him, this is of course with the exception of Shirk (associating partners to Him). If one dies while associating partners to Him, then he is not included in His Will mentioned in the following verse. Allaah says (which means): {Verily! Allah forgives not (the sin of) setting up partners in worship with Him, but He forgives whom He wills, sins other than that …}[4: 116]. Other than the sin of Shirk, there are other great major sins and minor sins. The great major sins are only forgiven by repentance whereas small sins are forgiven by the performance of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, Hajj and other acts of worship. The great major sins are the sins that a person commits and which necessitate punishment in this world like killing a soul, committing adultery or fornication, or stealing; or the sins that Allaah threatened its doer with His Anger, Punishment or Threat in the Hereafter, or that the doer of such sins is cursed in the Book of Allaah or the Sunnah of His Prophet 
. This is the best definition of great major sins, whereas minor sins are not as such. The sins that a person commits do not harm him as long as he repents to Allaah according to the conditions of sincere repentance and seeks His Forgiveness.
Allaah says (which means): {If any one does evil or wrongs his own soul but afterwards seeks Allaah's Forgiveness, he will find Allaah Oft- forgiving, Most merciful}[4:110]. Moreover, the Prophet said: "There is no Muslim who commits a sin then performs ablution and prays two Raka's and seeks the forgiveness of Allaah, except that Allaah forgives him." [Ahmad] The Prophet further said: "The one who seeks repentance is not considered as someone who insists on sinning even if he returns to the sin seventy times." [At-Tirmithi and Abu Daawood] This is an evidence that Allaah forgives the sins even if the sinner returns to the sin as long as he seeks Allaah's forgiveness and repents to Him after each and every sin. All the children of Aadam commit sins and the best sinners are those who repent from their sins.
Allaah knows best.