Islam for Muslims
- THE FAITH OF MUSLIMS
- GOOD DEEDS IN PERSONAL LIFE
- GOOD DEEDS IN SOCIAL LIFE
Importance & Types of Good Deeds: Importance & Types of Good Deeds
16: IMPORTANCE AND TYPES OF PERSONAL GOOD DEEDS
Introduction (Importance): Religious good deeds involving Dos and Don’ts represent the front and center in the life of a good Muslim. The faith is a necessary condition but not a sufficient one for completely aligning your life with Islam. If a servant, for example, acknowledges his master only by mouth, but does not carry out his orders, he cannot be a faithful servant in real sense. Likewise, if you are born into a Muslim family, you cannot become a true Muslim by only giving lip service to ‘shahada’ (declaration of faith in God and His Messenger).
It is therefore essential for you not only to express faith in God but also to translate His orders of “doing of good” (‘ebadah’) into actions (16:90), for making your faith meaningful. Short of your personal good deeds, even if you are born of pious parents, or die in a holy place like Mecca or on holy Friday, nothing probably can help you much toward Afterlife salvation. By contrast, God considers the righteous His “friend” and reserves “love” for them (6:127; 3:134). It is only the combination of good deeds with your faith that qualifies you for “good and pure life”, “higher ranks” with God and “unfailing reward” from Him in the form of “generous sustenance” and “Paradise” among other blessings (16:97; 20:75; 41:8; 22:50; 4:124). What’s more, good deeds backed by faith are “best as (the foundation for) hopes” for “divine Mercy”, “removal of (your) sins and improvement of your condition” (18:46; 7:56; 47:2). God also indicated the power of good deeds by not intending to “send them (the sinners) calamitous penalty while you (the Prophet as an example of good man) were present among them” (8:33).
Faith Not Enough: Islam does not adopt a short cut to popularity by promising your salvation only through professing of faith regardless of good deeds. That will not only mean a false hope but will also flood the world with crimes. Thus, both faith and good deeds are not only essential but are also intimately related in a complementary fashion. Faith is like a “goody tree” and good deeds are like its “fruits” (14:24/25). Another truth about good deed is that it is non-transferrable, therefore leaving no room for proxy. For example, a pious poor ‘P’ praying for a lazy rich ‘R’ on payment basis will not be acceptable to God, as He rules: “To us our deeds, and to you yours. If anyone does good deed, it helps his soul and if he does evil, it works against (his soul)” (28:55; 45:15).
Purpose of Creation: The significance of doing good goes to the heart of God’s policy of creating Jinns and Humans “only for (His) Service. To Him, (your) duty is always due” (51:56; 16:52). To put it plainly, the primary purpose of human creation is worship of God as He wants to see “who among you is best in deed (through faith and good deeds)” (67:2). Whatever else you do in this life (like earning, exercise etc.) is only secondary as these only provide support services to keep your body and mind in good shape so you are able to worship. It is, therefore, important that the primary purpose of worship is never overshadowed by secondary type of worldly pursuits.
Believe it or not, not only the human beings, but also all the things of this Universe ranging from “the sun, the moon, the stars, the hills, the trees, the animals (etc.) and also a great number of mankind” “bow down in worship” to God (22:18). Even if you “cannot realize how they worship”, but every worshipper knows its “own (mode of) prayer and praise” (17:44; 24:41). For example, the morning chirping of the birds or crowing of cocks may be their version of your recitation of Quran as prayer. As other examples of individual way of glorifying God include: “herbs and the trees (alike) bow in adoration” (55:6). “Birds with outspread wings” (24:41), shifting positions of “shadows’ (16:48), “diligent pursuit of courses” in the orbit by the planets (14:33) and so on. You should therefore put in best possible efforts in the service of God, not only for fulfilling the mission behind creation, but also for securing your place as “the best of creations” through faith and good deeds (98:7). God reminds you that He did “not create you in zest” without ties with your “accountable return to (Him)” (23:115).
Success in this Life: Pious actions bring peace of mind for at least 3 reasons. (i) You will feel mental pleasure from doing good like helping others. (ii) You will enjoy respect in your society due to your piety. (iii) You do not have to worry much for consequence that comes with sinful actions. When it comes to material well-being, you will see similar success, for God promises “generous livelihood” for the truly religious persons (22:50).
If you see any earthly setback for the righteous, that is more of an exception than rule as that is usually a temporary test rather than a lingering punishment. Good performance can make you so special and dear to God that He would not like to see your life full of troubles, for too long. After you pass the brief test, you will be showered with enormous and lasting blessings like Prophet Abraham. Your hardships may soon become a matter of the past. Thanks to your piety, your desire and prayer (supplication) for something is more likely to be granted easily than otherwise. All these benefits, by contrast, remain off-limits to the people of bad character and conduct.
Profitable Investment for the Afterlife: God urges upon mankind to build up a safer life beyond death through “sending forward (provisions) for tomorrow” which means by maximizing good deeds in this life (59:18). In a metaphoric example, during your active service life, you would like to put aside a portion of your income as retirement savings in order to secure your old life spanning over a few decades. Similarly, if you put forward as savings “some good deeds for your soul beforehand”, you will “find that with God” (2:110) as a profitable investment with huge dividends in the Afterlife.
This saving for Afterlife is far more valuable than retirement saving in lifetime. This is because of boundless rewards for endless duration resulting from this saving on the one hand and alternatively terrible risk of unlimited miseries without such saving on the other. In other words, combination of good deeds and faith matters as God enjoins “those who believe and work righteous deeds will be in the Gardens of Delight” (22:56).
Productive Use of Time: The earthly life is very short and fleeting. With an average life span of around 70 years, your life on earth would seem like “staying (here) a day or part of a day” when you vision it from the distant future in the Afterlife (23:113). Every moment of this life is like a fertile ground; the more of good deeds you plant timely and properly, the more of harvest you will reap in the Afterlife.
The value of this life may be compared to a metaphoric example of critically important 30-minute job interview. Only if you do well in the interview and land a job, you can expect to live well for say a 30-year career as well as during your retirement life; otherwise poverty will be your companion. Likewise, if you survive 100 years and spoil your time through inaction or bad actions, then the simple length of your lifetime will bring no good news for you. This is echoed in God’s example that granting a ‘life of a thousand years” will “not save (you) from due punishment” (2:96). Thus, the safety and success of the Afterlife depends on the proper and timely use of present lifetime which sharply closes “when death comes” (23:99). You should therefore start making proper use of this lifetime by bringing your virtuous actions since early life. One encouraging matter about this is that God does “not spoil the reward of any good deeds” (18:30).
Unproductive Use of Early Life: Despite the above, if you plan to be a late-starter, committing your energetic, youthful time to irreligious practices, then that may mean a great disservice to your self-interest because of the following:
(i) If unfortunately death intervenes in your early life, you may not get any chance to start with any virtuous deeds at all.
(ii) If you get your sinful habits hardened during early life, you may not find it easy to make a changeover to piety in later ages.
(iii) Even if you survive through old age, a delayed start of virtuous life after spoiling your early prime time amidst sinful pleasures will result in lower count of your total good deeds than otherwise. This will lower your rank (with God) that is decided “according to (your) deeds” (6:132).
(iv) Your young age enjoys better physical fitness (than gray years) necessary for fulfilling laborious prayer obligations.
All these points justify that as a Muslim you should begin cultivating virtuous deeds right from your childhood so that during your limited lifetime you can put forward the maximum amount of “good deeds for (benefits of) our souls beforehand” (2:223).
Types of Good Deeds (Do’s) and Bad Deeds (Don’ts): The duties and responsibilities of Muslims, in their personal life, are broadly divisible into two groups: (A) doing good deeds (Do’s) and (B) avoiding bad deeds (Don’ts).
(A) Four Classes of Do’s: In order of priority, the Do’s are classified into the following:
(1) Compulsory (‘fard’): This type of deeds mostly comes from Quranic sources. They rank so high in urgency that their violation will degrade you to a grave sinner and their rejection or mockery will rank you with a non-believer. The examples of ‘fard’ include but are not limited to what are popularly known as The Five Pillars: the declaration of faith (shahada), salat (prayer), zakat (charity), sawm (Ramadan fasting) and hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). The last four Pillars and other mandatory deeds (e.g. gaining knowledge, honest income, modest dress code etc.) will be treated separately. Now follow a few words about ‘shahada’, the most important among the Five Pillars.
Shahada: The ‘shahada’ marks a formal beginning of Islamic life through the declaration of faith in 2 facts: (a) God is the only Being worthy of worship (“there is no god but He”: 3:18) and (b) Muhammad (pbuh) is His Prophet. It has three priorities. (i) First, you need to publicly declare this faith as needed to make your Muslim identity a public knowledge (absent a hostile environment). (ii) Second, your mind will always bear faith in the dual themes of ‘shahada’. (iii) Third, you must try your best to translate your faith into actions as per orders of God and ideals of His Prophet. Nevertheless, repeated recitations of ‘shahada’, loud or silent, as daily rituals are not obligatory but good for optional credit.
(2) Semi-compulsory (wajib): This type of deeds also enjoy obligatory status but with a difference from ‘fard’. Unlike ‘fard’, violation of ‘wajib’ will amount to a grave sin but its denial will fall short of labeling you a non-believer. Examples are prayers of Eid-ul-Fitr (festival of ending Ramadan), Eid-ul-Adha (festival of sacrifice), ‘witr’ prayer during ‘isha’ time and obligations to parents (as per mainstream Sunni view).
(3) Emphasized Sunnah: Known as sunnat e muakkadah, this type comes up third in importance. Examples include 2 rakats of sunnah as part of ‘fazr’ (morning) prayer, wearing beard etc. Sunnah means the Prophet’s tradition based on what he (i) personally did (ii) told others to do or (iii) allowed others to do without prohibition. These were what he himself practiced most of the time and rarely violated without any good reasons. To match up, you also should try not to avoid this, for its violation may expose you to the risk of a minor sin in the least.
(4) Optional Sunnah (‘nafl’): Known as sunnat-e-gair muakkadah or mustahab, these received less emphasis from the Prophet as he practiced them off and on. Examples include additional prayer during ‘asr’ time, wearing cap/turban and so on. These are ‘nafl’ or optional which means if you do it you will get credit and there is no blame for your occasional default. However, you should not always trend to ignore this. As a follower of the Prophet, you should practice it whenever you can and leave it when you can’t but do not prioritize it over compulsory deeds.
(B) Types of Bad Deeds (Don’ts): These are divided into the following 3 types based on severity as bad deeds.
(1) Totally Prohibited: Known as ‘haram’, these are the worst type of sins and therefore most hateful to God. These are, therefore, totally and clearly prohibited and are liable to severe penalty. Examples include infidelity, homicide, adultery etc. Violations of essential Do’s (e.g. salat, fasting) also carry similar weight as prohibition.
(2) Strongly Condemned: Known as ‘maqruh tahrima’, these are often committed through violation of the semi-compulsory type of Do’s like deliberately avoiding prayers for any of the 2 Eid festivals. These are strongly condemnable as these are closer to ‘haram’ in graveness but with a difference that its willful rejection will not make you an unbeliever, as in the case of ‘haram’.
(3) Mildly Condemned: Known as ‘maqruh tanjihi’, these are undesirable deeds like regularly skipping optional prayers without good reasons, avoiding an Islamic name for your child etc. These may count as a minor sin, if consistently overlooked.
Conclusion: The above describes the diversity of good or bad deeds based on their differential importance. You should practice the Do’s or reject the Don’ts in descending order of their priorities (i.e. from high to low) for maximizing your blessings.