The Creator has placed a special feature in man’s psyche— and that is what is called ‘repentance’. This special feature is particularly prominent in people who have firm faith in God. Repentance is a wonderful means of mercy for human beings. This is referred to in the Quran (25:70) in these words:

God will change the evil deeds of such people into good ones.

The transformation that this Quranic verse refers to, with reference to the people of faith, takes place because of the sincere repentance that wells up inside them after they do something wrong. A positive aspect of repentance is that it engenders a strong determination in a person to reform himself, and after having done something wrong, to firmly walk on the path of goodness thereafter. It is this positive enthusiasm that follows from repentance that, in line with law of nature, changes an evil deed into a good one.

After doing an evil deed, one can choose to continue in the same path. In this case, this deed makes a person even more inclined to evil. On the other hand, after committing an evil act, a person can choose another alternative. He can engage in introspection and then make up his mind not to engage in evil again. He can decide that he will determinedly walk on the path of goodness thenceforth. If he does this, the evil deed that he has done becomes a factor that leads him to goodness. It is this quality that converts the evil committed by a person of faith into something good.

Source: Spirit of Islam, June 2017