The Door That Never Closes

Is there a limit? Can a person stop asking forgiveness after a certain age, and does Allah (swt) then stop forgiving? No. In a ṣaḥīḥ ḥadīth in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) said that Allah (swt) will turn in acceptance to anyone who turns to Him in tawbah before the sun rises from the place where it set. This ḥadīth concerns one of the major signs of qiyāmah: near the end of the world, a day will come when the sun no longer rises from the east but from the west — the earth will stop rotating and begin to turn backward, the poles reversing, positive becoming negative. Until that sun is seen rising from the west, the door of tawbah remains open to everyone, without exception.

A Muslim is therefore never, under any circumstance, to give up hope of the mercy of Allah (swt):

Those who constantly waste their own souls by sinning cause harm to themselves — this is why one of the names for sin in Islam is ẓulm, oppressing oneself, bullying one's own soul, showing it no mercy, when every act carries a consequence to be faced in the hereafter. To all who constantly hurt themselves in this way, Allah (swt) says: stop it, do not despair of the mercy of Allah (swt) — He will forgive every sin, without exception, in a single instant.