when contemplating how allah deals with an individual's forgiveness, the root definition of each of these words help a great deal. in general, an individual has sins that he is aware of and sins that he is not aware of. al haleem has been explained to mean that allah is forbearing and clement, where he gives an individual respite, or time to ask him for forgiveness. allah is not in haste to punish an individual for his sins. he even at times overlooks sins due to his attribute of haleem. al ghaffur has been described as meaning allah is "the most forgiving one". he forgives a particular sin, no matter how large it may be. if the person returns to the same sin, allah is al ghaffar, the very forgiving one. al ghaffar gives the notion that allah continuously and repetitively forgives an individual for his sins. if an individual returns to allah and asks for repentance, it can be accepted due to allah's attribute of being tawwab, the acceptor of repentance. once allah accepts the repentance of an individual through his infinite mercy, he can erase the sin altogether because of his attribute, affuw. it would be as though there is no sin at all. since man is not perfect, he repetitively sins and asks for forgiveness and seeks repentance, so the cycle of forgiveness can repeat from allah.