Re: Difference between us and our forefathers
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The mere statement "Allah is all forgiving . He would forgive us" shows repentance.
It means that what I did was wrong and I am asking Allah's for Allahs mercy.
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I think perhaps what he meant by this statement was people who do bad deeds and without feeling sincere shame and remorse for them and without making an effort to stop, continue to do bad deeds while feeling secure that Allah is Merciful and He will forgive us
Allah is Merciful and we could never imagine how much Mercy He has and we should never dispair or lose hope in the Mercy of Allah no matter how far away from Islam we have fallen -but at the same time we should not make a mockery of the concept of mercy and forgiveness. We all will make mistakes in our life, that is given. But whats important is to [1] recognize that we did wrong [2] feel shame and remorse for what we did [3] make sincere repentence to Allah and ask for forgiveness [4] do our best to not repeat this mistake [5] increase in good deeds to try to come closer to Allah
So in other words -follow up our wrong deed with something better. Ask forgiveness, try to stop doing that bad, and do a good deed. Sometimes a bad deed can actually lead us to become better Muslims -if it helps bring us closer to Allah through our sincere repentence and our effort to stop doing bad and do more good instead
The difference being -having just words vs. matching words with actions