The other day, my 8yo daughter rushed into my room, sobbing hysterically. Bewildered, I asked her what was wrong, and she broke down even more, finally confessing that she had remembered that she had done something really, really bad a few weeks ago and she now felt bad about it.

I coaxed her into telling me what it was, and she admitted all the gory details - what was, in essence, nothing very terrible at all, but mildly wrong at worst and really just a childish kind of thing to do to begin with.

Yet she sat on my lap, wracked with remorse, tears streaming down her face. "I feel so bad," she sobbed, "I know it was such a wrong thing to do! I'm so sorry!"

I hugged her, stroked her hair, and told her that it was okay, that I - and most importantly, Allah - still loved her. "You know," I told her, "Allah actually loves it when you say sorry to Him for anything bad that you did. It's good that you feel guilty, because it shows that you know the difference between right & wrong. The important thing to remember now is that Allah is the Most Merciful."

She remained quite emotional for a while, but eventually, as I reminded her that Allah is also the Most Loving and Most Forgiving, she slowly calmed down. "You won't tell anyone what I did, will you?" she asked anxiously.

"When you make mistakes like this, it's between you and Allah," I reassured her. "All you need to remember is to turn to Him and talk to Him in du'a. Shaytan wants you to feel so bad that you don't talk to Allah anymore, but Allah always love to see you asking for forgiveness."

In the end, she calmed down and resumed her day normally. I, on the other hand, have been mulling over the incident ever since it happened.

The whole scenario was a real-life playing out of the process of tawbah. How many of us commit sins and mistakes that we never even think about after they happen? Do we ever stop and remember what we did to someone else, or a sin that we committed secretly, and then feel overwhelmed with remorse? Do we channel that pain in the appropriate way, by remembering our Most Merciful, Loving, and Forgiving Creator?

Do we allow our guilt to push us away from Allah, or draw closer to Him? Do we remember to ask for His Forgiveness and sincerely resolve to refrain from that sin in the future? Do we remember how important it is for us to constantly talk to Allah?

It was certainly one of the more thought-provoking teachable parenting moments that I've had, less so for my daughter than for me.

It is in moments like these when the ayaat, ahadith, and scholarly reminders about the importance of spiritual repentance all become real and lived.

{Then Adam received from his Lord [some] words, and He accepted his repentance. Indeed, it is He who is the Accepting of repentance, the Merciful.} (Qur'an 2:37)

{Our Lord, and make us Muslims [in submission] to You and from our descendants a Muslim nation [in submission] to You. And show us our rites and accept our repentance. Indeed, You are the Accepting of repentance, the Merciful.} (2:128)