Many of us have felt disheartened because we messed up in our relationships with Allah. We may have committed sins, mistakes, and missteps. Perhaps we messed up too many times to count. And maybe we messed up in the worst of ways, leading us to experience shame and unworthiness.
And this results in us feeling that we cannot turn back to God; indeed, a feeling that we cannot even have a relationship with Him. How could we, when we have so many mistakes? Yet Allah tells us that He is the Forgiver of sin, the Oft-forgiving, the Ever-forgiving (Ghafir al-Dhanb, al-Ghafur, al-Ghaffar).