"Introducing Repentance to my Muslim Friend"

One day I was visiting Fatima when the subject of sin came up. Earlier that morning I had read Psalm 51 about David who confessed his guilt and sin, repented, and found cleansing. He is my teacher concerning repentance.

I asked if I could read what he said and she agreed. I prefaced it with the fact that David had done something terrible and was plagued with guilt.

She wanted to know what he did. I told her that I did not want to go into what he did but rather read about his confession of it, his repentant spirit, and his desire to be forgiven and made clean. She was surprised that a prophet would sin and have a big repentance time. By this time I had learned not to get bogged down with the Islamic understanding that prophets made “mistakes” but were impeccable.

I steered the conversation to recognizing my own sense of guilt and shame as a result of sin, needing to confess my sin to God, being broken and repentant, and then discovering the joy of forgiveness and cleansing.