How does Islam deal with sin and forgiveness without redemption through Jesus (as)?

In Islam every human being is born innocent, and there is no original sin. Whoever sincerely repents of a sin and reforms is forgiven by God directly, without anyone else having to suffer for it.

The difference begins with the question of how a human being comes into the world. According to the Holy Qur’an every child is born innocent. No one inherits the guilt of another, not even the guilt of Adam. A sin does not pass into the nature of one's descendants, as the first hadith above shows.

The Holy Qur’an also relates that Adam repented and God forgave him. Forgiveness wipes out earlier guilt completely. If God had already forgiven Adam, why should He condemn all his innocent descendants, generation after generation, for that deed? And why should an innocent person have to suffer so that others may go free? Both contradict justice.

In Islam God forgives the way good parents forgive a child who recognises a mistake and honestly regrets it. No sacrifice is needed for this. What is needed is true repentance, asking for forgiveness and a firm resolve to do better. Whoever is forgiven by God in this way is like one newly born. The second hadith above describes, with an image from everyday life, how great God's joy is over such a person.

People, too, should forgive. The Holy Qur’an, however, attaches a condition. Forgiveness is good when it leads to reform. If instead it only encouraged wrongdoing, it would be no virtue.

So in Islam the central question is not who pays for our sins, but how we turn honestly to God and change.