40:3"The Forgiver of the faults and the Acceptor of repentance, Severe to punish, Lord of bounty; there is no god but He; to Him is the eventual coming" 39:53,85:14"And He is the Forgiving, the Loving".
God is Merciful those who do not persist in their transgression, disregard and dishonor of the sanctity of religion. The capacity to repent is recognized by Allah as a deed requiring great strength and resolve. Allah in turn immediately appreciates that deed by accepting the person in His boundless mercy. One must turn to Allah with remorse and resolve, otherwise even the plea of the noblest of men on a sinner's behalf will not lead to his forgiveness 63:5-6.
In fact Allah's mercy is such, that even when one shows the initial spark of good will, then Allah immediately assits the person in strengthening his resolve
9:118"then He turned to them (taaba) that they might turn (liyatubu) to Him".
The concept of tawba stems from TWB. It entails one turning to another to re-bond with it. This "re-bonding" can either be through repentance from sin, in the case of the sinner, or through facilitation of that repentance, through divine guidance. Allah has already decreed that He will forgive the repentent sinner, guide him upon the straight path, erase his faults and ward off from him the chastisement of this life and the next. This is far from the athropopathic language found in the HB
Gen6:6"The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled".
Similarly, Allah decreed that a revealed system will be shaped and reshaped throughout time depending on the people's circumstances. It can even be hardened to punish a nation for its disobedience, as what happened to the Jewish people. There is therefore no "change" in God's "mind" whenever He decides to forgive instead of punish, or to abrogate one revealed system, replacing it with another.
It is amazing to note that sin, which is synonymous with estrangement from God, does not stop God Himself from making the first step towards reconciliation with His creatures. He first turns to us mercifully, opening the gates of forgiveness, it is then up to us to walk through it. Those who follow the guidance and find strength along the way, Allah has made it obligatory for Himself to accept their repentance and purify them from their sin
2:160"these it is to whom I turn (mercifully)" 4:17"Repentance with (on) Allah is only for those who do evil in ignorance, then turn (to Allah) soon, so these it is to whom Allah turns (mercifully)".
Allah has promised His servants that He would accept the repentance of the sincere; and He does not break His promise. Muslims trust God's word and do not need Him to send His own self in human form to be humiliated and crucified so as to prove His ability to forgive.
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