I keep repenting for the same sin and falling back into it — is my tawbah still valid, and should I ever stop trying?

Yes, your repentance counts every single time, even if you fall back into the same sin repeatedly. The Prophet described a man who sinned, then said, 'O Allah, forgive my sin,' and Allah forgave him. He sinned again, said the same thing, and was forgiven again. On a later occurrence, Allah says, 'My slave has committed a sin and has known that he has a Lord who forgives sins and takes to task for sin. Let My slave do as he wills' (Sahih Muslim 2758) — meaning Allah keeps forgiving so long as the servant keeps turning back sincerely. What Allah asks is not perfection but persistence in returning: 'those who, when they commit an immorality... remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins, and do not persist in what they have done while they know' (3:135) — the key is not staying comfortable in the sin between slips, not achieving flawlessness. Relapse is part of most people's real struggle. Giving up on repentance because you fell again is a far bigger loss than the fall itself — get up and turn back again.

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