3429 In striving to purify our Faith and Life, we are enabled to avoid the consequences of our misdeeds for Allah will forgive any evil in our past, purify any tendencies towards evil which we may have inherited from that past, and help to the attainment of a Future based on the best of what we have done rather than on the poor average of our own merits. The atonement or expiation is by Allah's Mercy, not by our merits or the merits or sacrifices of anyone else (Cf.
46:16). (R).