It is evaluated as such. Accordingly, khawf (fear) is a khātima (final outcome). It is possible for death to reach everyone. This too is a khātima (an end). In that ḥāl (spiritual state), everyone should observe themselves and avoid engaging in prohibited acts!
In the fourth level, there is the penitent who repents, maintains uprightness for a while, but then, before the nafs (lower self) becomes accustomed to repentance and without feeling remorse for what was done, immediately plunges back into sins. This person persists in sin. This nafs is the nafs al-ammāra bi's-sūʾ (the commanding self that incites to evil). For such a person, there is fear of sūʾ al-khātima (a bad end, i.e., dying in kufr [disbelief]). If he dies upon tawhid (the oneness of God), even if he remains distant from Paradise and its blessings for a while, it is hoped he will be saved from the Fire. It is also not impossible that, due to a hidden reason he does not understand, he may be included in the generality of forgiveness (i.e., be encompassed by pardon). However, it is not correct to rely and depend on this. You may see someone who says, 'Allah is Generous, His treasure is vast, my sin does not harm Him,' later embarking on a sea journey to earn money. (Qudāma, 278)
Tawba (repentance) has been made one of the causes of maḥabba (divine love): Allah loves those who repent and those who purify themselves. Tawba, in this verse, has been made a cause for Allah's love for His servant. For a servant to acquire Allah's love is muḥāl (impossible) (because Allah's love is not originated in time; to say otherwise would require accepting change in Him, which would imply claiming Allah is not perfect). – This is an allusion to His favor, nearness (qurb), and mercy being specially directed to the servant before anything else. – He, in terms of precedence, is not a muḥibb (one who loves) first. His love is the fruit of His precedence and special bestowal. It is correct that tawba is, in terms of Allah's precedence in maḥabba, the agent (fāʿil), and in terms of its connection to the manifest, a complementary cause. (Rawḍa, 258)
Tawba means rujūʿ (returning). Tāba (he repented) means he turned from what is blameworthy in religion to what is praiseworthy. Someone has said: In the beginning, the most important maqām (spiritual station) is tawba. Tawba is to turn from opposition to conformity; from nature to sharia (the sacred law); from the outward to the inward; from creation to tawba-ināba-awba.
It is to turn to the Real (God). This includes among those who are advanced, companions (musāḥib), and followers who walk in the footsteps of the murshid (spiritual guide), yaqaza (spiritual awakening), ināba, and muḥāsaba (self-accounting). There is not a long interval between them.
Shaykh Abū Qāsim says: Tawba consists of a meaning that arranges three things. The first necessitates the second; the second necessitates the third. These are knowledge, ḥāl (spiritual state), and action. Knowledge is to know the sins and their harms, ḥāl is remorse, and action is resolve and withdrawing from (sins). (Rawḍa, 259)
Tawba is first from sin, then from thinking one has performed many acts of obedience, then from thinking one has committed few maʿṣiyya (acts of disobedience), then from wasting time, then from tawba and all other acts, i.e., repenting from everything other than the Real (God). (Rawḍa, 260)
Tawba precedes maḥabba, and sometimes follows it. Most often, the spark that flashes upon its effect is the lamp of rajāʾ (hope), which veils it. Uprightness confirms this hope. This is to be intertwined with the state of tawba. This state illuminates the light of maḥabba in Allah's house, i.e., in the qalb (the heart). For the nafs has begun to remove veils and to conduct itself well with Allah, and has become familiar with this new ḥāl. (Rawḍa, 261)
We have accepted tawba as one of the causes of maḥabba and as an act that precedes maḥabba. This is an ʿilla (causal basis) for the existence of muḥibbiyya (loving) and maḥbūbiyya (being loved), i.e., it requires the existence of the lover and the beloved. (Rawḍa, 409)
Ināba is to turn to Allah for the purpose of rectification, apology, loyalty, fulfilling the covenant (with Allah), ḥāl (spiritual state), and responding (to His call). (Rawḍa, 477)
Tawba: When a person returns to sin, he can neither engage in murāqaba (spiritual vigilance) nor can he gaze upon the gaze of the Real (God) upon him. For only one who can see that Allah sees him will have his faculties refrain from sin and his qalb submit not to maʿṣiyya. This tawba is the tawba of the muḥsin (one who has attained ihsan [spiritual excellence]), i.e., the tawba of the righteous, the muʾminūn (believers) and Muslims at the maqām of ihsan (spiritual excellence). This tawba is repentance from sin.
The tawba of those at the maqām of shahāda (witnessing) is from remembering maʿṣiyya; the tawba of those at the maqām of ṣiddīqiyya is from anything other than Allah passing through the mind. The tawba of the muqarrabūn (those brought near) is from being under the rule of ḥāl. States cannot possess them. This is due to their steadfastness at every manifestation, recognizing its people, and in the divine rahmānī istiwāʾ (merciful establishment).