A: Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) prescribed Tawbah (repentance) to His servants. He (Exalted be He) says: And all of you beg Allâh to forgive you all, O believers, that you may be successful He (Glorified be He) says also: O you who believe! Turn to Allâh with sincere repentance! And: And verily, I am indeed forgiving to him who repents, believes (in My Oneness, and associates none in worship with Me) and does righteous good deeds, and then remains constant in doing them, (till his death). The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "The one who repents from sin is like one who has not sinned." Whoever commits a sin, should hasten to repent, regret, desist, resolve never to do this sin again and be on guard against it, for Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) forgives those who repent.

Once the servant sincerely repents to Allah, by regretting the sin committed and resolving never to do it again and completely refrain from it out of reverence and fear of Allah, their Tawbah will be accepted and Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) will erase their past sins out of His Grace and Kindness.

Nevertheless, if the sin is an injustice done to people, this requires to give back the right owed to them and to repent of what one has done. One must also feel regret with a firm determination never to do this thing again. In addition, one has to give back the rights to the parties wronged or ask for their forgiveness, such as saying, "My brother, forgive me," or "Pardon me," or making similar apologies. This is based upon the Hadith mentioned by the questioner and many other Hadiths and Ayahs (Qur'anic verses). The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "Anyone who has wronged his brother in his honour or anything, let him ask his forgiveness for it today before the time (i.e., the Day of Resurrection) when there will be no Dinar or a Dirham (to compensate for the wrong deed). If he has any righteous deeds, it will be taken from them in proportion to the wrong he did; and if he has not any righteous deeds, some of the bad deeds of his companion will be taken and burdened on him." (Related by Al­Bukhari in his Sahih [Authentic Hadith Book])Believers must be keen to absolve themselves from accountability for rights violated by giving them back to their owners or by asking for their pardon. If they violated someone's honor, they should ask forgiveness for it, if they can. But if they cannot or are afraid of the negative consequences, and that telling the person may cause greater harm, they should ask Allah's Forgiveness for that person, supplicate to Allah for them, and mention their merits instead of the evils they mentioned about them in the past. They should wash away the former bad deed by later good deeds by mentioning the good things they know about them and spreading their merits in place of the demerits they formerly mentioned, and by asking Allah's Forgiveness and supplicating for them. In this way, they can end this problem.