Abu Hurairah reported,
The Prophet ﷺ reported that a man committed a sin and said, "My Lord, I have committed a sin," or he said, "I have done a sinful deed, so forgive me."
said, "My servant has committed a sin and knows that he has a Lord who forgives sins and holds people accountable for them. I have forgiven my servant."Then he committed another sin, or sinned again, and said, "My Lord, I have committed a sin, so forgive me."
said, "My servant knows that he has a Lord who forgives sins and holds people accountable for them. I have forgiven my servant."Then he committed yet another sin, or sinned again, and said, "My Lord, I have committed a sin, so forgive me."He said, "My servant knows that he has a Lord who forgives sins and holds people accountable for them. I have forgiven my servant, so let him do as he wishes."
Ahmad 7948
Sahihحدثنا يزيد أخبرنا همام بن يحيى عن إسحاق بن عبد الله بن أبي طلحة عن عبد الرحمن بن أبي عمرة
عن أبي هريرة
عن النبي ﷺ أن رجلا أذنب ذنبا فقال رب إني أذنبت ذنبا أو قال عملت عملا ذنبا فاغفره فقال عز وجل عبدي عمل ذنبا فعلم أن له ربا يغفر الذنب ويأخذ به قد غفرت لعبدي ثم عمل ذنبا آخر أو أذنب ذنبا آخر فقال رب إني عملت ذنبا فاغفره فقال تبارك وتعالى علم عبدي أن له ربا يغفر الذنب ويأخذ به قد غفرت لعبدي ثم عمل ذنبا آخر أو أذنب ذنبا آخر فقال رب إني عملت ذنبا فاغفره فقال علم عبدي أن له ربا يغفر الذنب ويأخذ به قد غفرت لعبدي فليعمل ما شاء
Its chain of transmission is sahih. Hammam bin Yahya bin Dinar Azdi has appeared many times before, and he is well known. Here in ح it appears as "Hammam from Yahya," which is a corruption, for Hammam bin Yahya narrates from Ishaq directly, and Yahya here is his father, not his teacher. We corrected it from ك, م, and Jami al-Masanid.Ishaq bin Abdullah bin Abu Talha Ansari, his reliability was established earlier at 5414, and we add here that Ibn Abu Hatim gave his biography at 226/1/1.Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Amra Ansari Najari, judge of Madinah, was a trustworthy Successor who narrated many hadiths. The authors of the six books cited him, and Ibn Abu Hatim gave his biography at 273/2/2.The hadith appears in Jami al-Masanid 7:219-220. It will come again at 9245 from Affan, from Hammam, with this same chain. It will also come at 10384, from Bahz, from Hammad, from Ishaq bin Abdullah bin Abu Talha, with the same wording.Bukhari related it at 13:392-393 from Ahmad bin Ishaq, from Amr bin Asim, from Hammam, with the same wording. Before that he related it from Abdul-Ala bin Hammad, from Hammad, who is Ibn Salama, from Ishaq bin Abdullah bin Abu Talha.Munziri mentioned it in Targhib wal-Tarhib 4:74, attributing it to the two sahihs, then explained it, saying, His statement, "let him do as he wishes," means, and Allah knows best, that so long as every time he commits a sin he seeks forgiveness for it and repents from it and does not return to it, evidenced by his statement, "then he commits another sin," let him do so, if this is his continual practice, whatever he wishes, because every time he sins his repentance and seeking of forgiveness serves as expiation for his sin. So it does not harm him that he is bound to commit the sin and then seek forgiveness for it, provided this is not merely with his tongue without genuinely desisting, and then he returns to it again, for that would be the repentance of liars.