Deeds & Intentions

"O God! Purify my heart of hypocrisy, my actions of pretense, my tongue of lies,
and my eyes of deception. For You know all well the deception of the eye and
all that is concealed in the heart."
~ Prophet Muhammad, Kanz al-Ummal of Ali al-Muttaqi

The Islamic definition of a good deed is any charitable act done in the Name of God free of all ulterior motives, specially the kind that involves raising oneself in worldly status without piety in heart. Now, if a person is rewarded by their peers voluntarily for their deeds, there is no harm in accepting it. However, it is asked that we ourselves do not demand any such reward from the people. The deeds of charity that we do are to remain only between God and us, and the rewards we do not get in this life are received in the next. As Jesus says during the Sermon on the Mount, Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6, Verses 1-4:

"Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them;
otherwise you have no reward with your Father Who is in Heaven.
"So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do
in the synagogues and in the streets so they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. When you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your giving is secret; and your Father Who sees what is done in secret will reward you."

This is essential in the Islamic creed, that we are to remember whatever good deed we do is possible only because God has blessed us with the ability to do it. Hence, one should not long for a reward from the people but rather from the Lord Who has allowed us to perform the act. Claiming full credit for a righteous deed without paying heed to
the Existence of God is considered to be a form of worship that is not directed to the One Worthy of all Worship. Instead, it is as if the person has taken their own soul, their pride, desires and ego as an object of worship. It is hidden polytheism that raises status of one's own self to the level of a deity and breaches the Testimony of Witness one utters to declare themselves a Muslim:

"There is no deity but God"

Through the aforementioned prayer, the Prophet Muhammad advises us to cleanse our souls of such self-deception
so that we may know without the Grace of God we are nothing, and without Faith our deeds are nothing.

"We are all infected and impure with sin, when we display our righteous deeds: they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind."
[Isaiah 64:6]

May God, Exalted are They, protect our hearts from the sin of hypocrisy, our tongue from the sin of treachery
and our eyes from the sin of deception. Amen.



— Fahim Ferdous Kibria