Things that Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Holy, gave Adam at the Time of Repentance

“Adam said, ‘O Lord, you have made Satan dominate me and made him flow in me like blood, so make something for me also.’ The Lord said, ‘O Adam, for your benefit I have given your offspring the advantage of not writing down against them any sin if they only intend to commit an evil deed. If they actually commit an evil deed only one evil deed is written against them. If anyone of them intends to perform a good deed one good deed is written down for him even if he did not perform it. If, however, he actually performs it ten good deeds are written for him.’ Adam said, ‘O Lord, increase favors upon me.’ The Lord said, ‘I have also assigned for your benefit that if anyone of your offspring commits a sin and then pleads before Me for forgiveness I forgive him.’ Adam said, ‘Lord, grant me more favors.’ The Lord said, ‘I, for their advantage, have made repentance available to them’ or he (the Imam) said that the Lord said, ‘I have extended the time for repentance in their favor up to the time the soul reaches this (throat).’ Adam then said, ‘Lord, this is sufficient for me.’”

“The Messenger of Allah has said, ‘If one repents one year before his death, Allah accepts his repentance.’ Then he said, ‘One year is a long time. Whoever repents one month before his death Allah accepts his repentance.’ Then he said, ‘One month is a long time. Whoever repents one week before his death, Allah accepts his repentance.’ Then he said, ‘One week is a long time. Whoever repents one day before his death, Allah accepts his repentance.’ Then he said, ‘One day is a long time. Whoever repents before he sees (the consequences), Allah accepts his repentance.’”

“When the soul reaches this - pointing to his throat - there will be no repentance for one who has knowledge, however, there will be repentance for an ignorant person.”

“Once we left for Makka and with us there was an old man, very religious and worshipping but did not know this cause (Shi’a Muslim belief). He would pray full (not in reduced form) on a journey and with him there was the son of his brother, also a Muslim. The old man became ill and I said to the son of his brother, ‘If you introduce this cause to your uncle perhaps Allah may grant him freedom.’ All of them said, ‘Leave the old man alone to die in his condition; he looks just fine.’ The son of his brother did not wait and said, ‘Uncle, people after the Messenger of Allah proselytized (gave up their religion) except a very few people. Ali ibn abu Talib must have been obeyed just like the Messenger of Allah had been obeyed. After the Messenger of Allah it was the right of Ali to be obeyed.’ “The narrator has said that the old man sighed deeply and said, ‘I am upon this (belief),’ and he died. We then went in the presence of Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) and Ali ibn al-Sariy narrated the story before Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) and he said, ‘He was a man of paradise.’ Ali ibn al-Sariy said, ‘He had no knowledge of this cause except for one Sa’ah there. ’ The Imam said, ‘What else do you want from him. He, by Allah, has entered paradise.’”