The most quoted line on repentance, and why it is not here

There is a sentence that appears in almost every article on this. The one who repents from sin is like one who never sinned.

It is narrated in Sunan Ibn Majah, and on sunnah.com it is graded weak. We are saying that out loud rather than dropping it quietly, because it is one of the most circulated lines in the whole subject and you deserve to know which of the things you have been told are sound.

There is a second one worth naming. Every son of Adam sins, and the best of those who sin are the ones who repent. That report is sound, but the number that circulates for it, the Tirmidhi one, is graded weak, while the same report at Ibn Majah 4251 is graded good. So the line is usable and the reference people give for it usually is not.

What we have used instead, in the step above, is stronger than either of them and says something warmer.