Tawbah plus iṣlāḥ (reform). The verse names two parts. Words plus change. If the words are alone, the verse does not promise turning. The pair is the door.

There is a tale al-Ghazālī retells about a man who came to a scholar saying: I have made tawbah a thousand times and broken it a thousand times. The scholar said: that is not tawbah; that is rehearsal. Tawbah is a verbal commitment, but its proof is in the next action. If you said you would not return to the sin, your tawbah is what you do at the next opportunity to commit it. The verse is exact: tāba wa aṣlaḥa. The reform is the proof. Now look at your tawbah patterns. Are you reforming, or rehearsing? If you make tawbah for backbiting and the next conversation has backbiting in it, the tawbah was a rehearsal. If you make tawbah and the next opportunity passes without the sin, the tawbah was real. So tonight, when you make tawbah for whatever you choose, do not just speak. Plan. Identify the next likely temptation. Decide your response in advance. Do the reform. Allah's promise activates: yatūbu ʿalayh, He will turn to him. The verse is reciprocal. He waits at the door we walk to. Walk. Yā Allāh, accept our tawbah and our small reforms. Where we fail to reform, forgive by Your mercy. Make us of those who turned and were turned to. Open the door we are knocking on. Āmīn.