What is Repentance and What are its Ranks?

Repenting (linguistically) is returning. It is returning from the disobedience of Allah the Exalted to obedience to Him. The greatest and the most obligatory is repentance from Kufr (disbelief) to Iman (belief). Allah the Exalted said: “Say to those who have disbelieved, if they cease (from disbelief), their past will be forgiven.” [Al-Anfal:38] Then, it is followed by repentance from major sins. Then, the third rank is repentance from minor sins. It is Wajib (obligatory) for a person to repent to Allah Almighty from every sin.