Is It Really For The Sake Of Allah?

Asalam Alaekum Waramatullahi Wabarakatu,

Trust you are doing well striving and thriving.

I woke up with a number of thoughts rushing through my head, all important but settled with the one that bothered me the most. One of us has been on a minimalist journey ( or at least she has been trying to for some months now) and with every single thing she cuts down, came a deeper level of attention to what is left. I would love to tell you of her amazing discoveries on the multiple uses of things, for example, How Orange can be food, tea, flavor and oil , but we have more important things to talk about , our deeds. When you move from having the capacity to contribute to anything, to having very little, you begin to pay attention to the quality of the deeds ‘you can afford’ and then the fear of them being accepted, creeps in.

It feels like it has become so easy and common to say we do things for the sake of Allah. Is it not us? Do you know who we are? We go to the mosque for the sake of Allah, we love people for His sake ,we donate buildings, cash, food and clothes all for His sake. We have even mastered the act of turning our daily acts into acts of worship. All we need to do is say Bismillah and that is it. We never have to think about it again… On to the next one!

But, are they really for HIS sake?

I want you to really think about that for a minute. Ask yourself, Did I do that deed for Allah’s sake or did I do it to be praised? Did I donate those funds to maintain my social status? Do I love that person because she makes me look good? Did I give out those clothes to make me look charitable? Did I do that favor to maintain my image as the best child in the family? Did I write that cheque to increase my company’s chances of winning a CSR award?

Did I do it for my ego or did I do it for His sake?

For deeds to be accepted by Allah they must meet two conditions Sincerity of intentions and being in accordance with the way Allah has prescribed , which is by following the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

Our focus today is in the sincerity of our actions.

Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Verily, the people will only be raised for judgment based on their intentions.

This clearly shows us the importance of doing actions with the greatest level of attention. It shows us that what is within our hearts takes priority over what is on the outside. Now the thing with the heart is, it is the real deal, there is no faking it.

قُلْ إِن تُخْفُوا۟ مَا فِى صُدُورِكُمْ أَوْ تُبْدُوهُ يَعْلَمْهُ ٱللَّهُ ۗ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ قَدِيرٌۭ ٢٩

Say, "Whether you conceal what is in your breasts or reveal it, Allāh knows it. And He knows that which is in the heavens and that which is on the earth. And Allāh is over all things competent.— Saheeh International

Quran 3:29

We have to constantly search our hearts and make sure that the actions done are for Allah’s sake only. We must also care deeply about how we execute them, ‘impacting the lives of millions’ could be wasted, if we treated people with ugliness and bad character .If we denied people their rights and pushed our team over the edge in achieving our goals, we need to interrogate why. Were we trying to achieve the best for ourselves or for Allah? We must set our intentions at the beginning and continuously renew them till our deeds are done.

Then, we do not just move to the next one, but we instead pray for acceptance. Our best is not Allah’s best. As we know, we put in what we can and then ask Him for success. So when we wrap up a project at our level, it is not done and dusted, we take it to Allah. We seek His forgiveness of the possible shortcomings and then we ask for acceptance. Learning about how the companions consistently prayed for acceptance of deeds from a session in 2020, has stuck with me. There is no done and dusted in this game, we can only pray that Allah accepts our good deeds.

Ibn Rajab reported: Ma’la ibn al-Fadl, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “The companions would supplicate to Allah for six months prior that they would reach Ramadan. Then, they would supplicate to him for six months afterward to accept their deeds.”

Source: Laṭā’if al-Ma’ārif 1/138

This is not to discourage us from doing good deeds, but instead to encourage us to pay more attention to why we do these deeds and how we do them.

If is truly for His sake, then we should start and end with Him.

This week’s resources are focused on purifying our intentions and the sincerity of our actions. First up, is this video by Sheikh Suleiman Hani on Sincerity of Actions.

Then, we have a paper by Justin Parrot on The Guiding Principles of Faith: Sincerity, Honesty, and Good Will in Islam . This is a great read that breaks down the focus areas for sincerity and also has animation based on it too.

Our Watch party is just around the corner! We are so excited to have a nice , cozy time with you and your friends. Remember, it is absolutely FREE and it is on the 25th of December 2022. Why haven’t you signed up? Some of us are already ordering Microwave popcorn and wondering whether to watch it on the big screen or settle for our laptops! Registration is open, so just click the link below and you are in! See you there.

We leave you in Allah’s Care,

One Of Us at IbadahPlug