God’s generosity and protection Friday, 15 April 2011 05:17

Anyone who acts rightly, male or female, being a believer, We will give them a good life and recompense them according to the best of what they did. (Annahl 16: 97)

… “Good!” There is good in this world for those who do good, and the abode of the Hereafter is even better. How wonderful is the abode of those who guard against evil. (Annahl 16: 30)

Abraham was a community in himself, exemplary, obedient to Allah, a man of pure natural belief. He was not an idolater. He was thankful for His blessings. Allah chose him and guided him to a straight path. We gave him good in this world, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the righteous. (Annahl 16: 120-22)

Did He not find you impoverished and enrich you? (Addhuha 93: 8).

In addition, Prophets like David, Solomon, Dhul Qarnayn, Abraham (peace be upon them all) all enjoyed great wealth.

It is a glad tiding from God that His faithful servants receive wonderful blessings in this life both as a reward and as a source of joy, and as an indication of His generosity and protection. Just as the unbelievers’ eternal pangs begin in this life, so do the believers begin to receive the eternal blessings promised to them.

Another blessing on the sincere believers is that their bad deeds are changed into good. As we said earlier, a human being is a creature that can easily make mistakes. A person may fall into error, commit sins unknowingly, behave incorrectly and say bad things. But the important thing is that he later repents of these errors and corrects his behaviour. To His servants with such a sincere morality, our Lord gives glad tidings in the Quran:

These glad tidings manifest the All-Merciful and Most Merciful God’s endless generosity to His servants, as does His changing of bad deeds into good. The Quran tells us of this in the following words:

Believers believe in God Who created them, obey His commands and prohibitions, live according to the Quran’s morality, and, most importantly, have great hope and expectation for the Afterlife. As a result, they are far removed from all sadness and spiritual anxiety, for they believe in destiny and that God has created everything.

Since the world is a place of trial, believers will encounter hunger, illness, sleeplessness, accidents, material loss, and other hardships as part of their destiny. Understanding that these events were designed to test their belief and that their patience will be the source of their eternal reward in the Hereafter, they also realise that these ordeals will help them mature. Thus they entrust themselves to God and remain content, joyful, and happy, free of all anxiety and spiritual imbalance. In fact, their joy and excitement actually increase.

This situation is quite the opposite for the unbelievers, for they suffer spiritual distress and various kinds of physical pain. Their sense of fear, despair, apprehension, pessimism, and negativity are the first stirrings of the pain they will suffer in Hell. In the Quran, God describes those people who deviate from the true path:

God will show His kindness to those believers who approach Him with fear and awe, repent, and ask forgiveness. If they are sincere, they will receive many wonderful blessings in this life:

Believers do good to win God’s approval and mercy so that they may attain Paradise. All they want is to serve and please Him; they have no desire to serve or seek any person’s favour or respect, to acquire high rank or position. They fear, respect, and love God, always remembering that He is their sole friend and advocate.

In the Quran, the Lord tells us that His devoted servants will be rewarded with a great and never-ending reward, that this reward will be perfect in all respects and that it will be given to them twice over: When it is recited to them they, say: “We believe in it; it is the truth from our Lord. We were already Muslims bowing down to Allah before this came. They will be given their reward twice over, because they have been steadfast, warded off the bad with the good, and gave from what We provided them. (Al Qasas 28: 53-4)

We see in the above verses that God promises a great reward in return for His servants’ sincere efforts to win His favour, do good, and spread the Quran’s morality to all around them. The greatest reward is earning God’s favour. Moreover, God promises a great and generous reward to those believers whose only goal in this life is to win His favour and mercy and attain Paradise. Another reward announced in the Quran is that the Lord will encompass these sincere believers with His mercy: As for those who believed and did right actions, their Lord will admit them into His mercy. That is the Clear Victory.

No matter what conditions believers live under, they always trust in God, turn to Him, think about pleasing Him, and never compromise the Quran’s morality. For this reason, God’s mercy, love, and generosity are always with them. God has announced good tidings to His sincere servants who sincerely try to follow His way and gladly spend their energy and resources to win His favor; as a reward for what they have done, they will be endowed with blessings that will never end;

In other words, God has given to believers the good tidings of Paradise, revealed that He will accept all of their good works, and that the beauty and happiness they will attain is very near. The knowledge that God’s endless mercy and love are always with them, as well as the hope that He will reward them with Paradise give the believers’ great contentment and relief. God also says that these glad tidings will be announced to believers by angels:

God promises that believers will always be happy and secure in this world, that He will give them strength and power to live under the rule of the moral teachings of the Quran:

This is God’s promise to all believers. Believers must thank and praise Him constantly for His incomparable generosity.

(Al Jathiyyah 45: 30)

Those who believe and do right actions will have a wage that never fails.

(Fussilat 41: 8)

O Prophet, tell your wives: “But if you desire Allah, His Messenger, and the abode of the Hereafter, Allah has prepared an immense reward for those among you who do good. (Al Ahzab 33: 29)

Those who recite the Book of Allah, pray, and give of what We have provided for them, secretly and openly, hope for a transaction that will not prove profitless. Believers hope that He will pay them their wages in full and give them more from His unbounded favor. He is Ever-Forgiving, Ever-Thankful.

(Fatir 35: 29-30)

But those of you who obey Allah and His Messenger and act rightly will be given their reward twice over; and We have prepared generous provision for them.

(Al Ahzab 33: 31)

Those who produce a good action will receive ten like it. But those who produce a bad action will only be repaid with its equivalent; they will not be wronged.

(Al An’am 6: 160)

Men and women who are Muslims, men and women who are believers, men and women who are obedient, men and women who are truthful, men and women who are steadfast, men and women who are humble, men and women who give charity, men and women who fast, men and women who guard their chastity, men and women who remember Allah much: Allah has prepared forgiveness for them and an immense reward. (Al-Ahzab 33: 35)