On the authority of Abu Huraira who said: The Messenger
of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Verily Allah,
the Exalted, is pure and accepts only that which is pure. Allah has
commanded the believers to do that which He has commanded the
Messengers. The Exalted has said, ‘O Messengers! Eat of the good things
and do right.’ And the Exalted also said, ‘O believers! Eat of the good
things that we have provided for you.’” Then he [the Prophet peace be
upon him] mentioned a man who after a long journey is disheveled and
dust coloured. “[The man] stretches his hands out toward the sky and
says, ‘O Lord, O Lord,’ while his food is unlawful, his drink is
unlawful, his clothing unlawful and his nourishment is unlawful. How is
he to be answered [in such a state]?” (Recorded in Sahih Muslim)
It begins by stating that Allah (swt) is tayyib in Arabic. Tayyib literally
means something good, but in reference to Allah (swt) in this hadith it
means ‘the pure’. Allah, is pure and perfect and far above any
imperfection or need. He (swt) possesses all of the attributes of
perfection and completeness. He (swt) is not in need of any partner or
child. He (swt) does not need to sleep or rest. All of these attributes
are implied in this one statement of the Prophet (s) in which every form
of shortcoming or weakness is removed from Allah (swt).
“and accepts only that which is pure.”
The scholars have said that this portion of the hadith refers not
only to wealth that is pure, meaning earnt for lawful means, but to all
deeds. That is, Allah (swt) does not accept any deed unless it is free
from anything which would make it impure. Our actions should be lawful
according to the Shariah. Our deeds must be free from
ostentation or showing off, or seeking to please other than Allah, in
other words it must be performed for His sake only. Our wealth should
have been acquired using halal means (not from interest, or sale of
liquor etc ) and our sustenance should also be pure and good (halal).
As we will see later in this hadith the entire way in which a
person lives life can be taken into account when considering whether or
not a deed will be ‘acceptable’ to Allah (swt). And any acceptance is
through His (swt) Mercy, and He is the Most Merciful.
The are a number of ways in which a deed can by ‘accepted’ by Allah
(swt). Firstly, Allah may pleased with the deed, praise the one who
performed it, tell the angels about the deed performed and so forth.
Secondly, the deed may be rewarded in the Hereafter. Thirdly,
the person may be considered to have performed their legal obligation of
enacting the deed (ie they prayed). A verse in the Qur’an further
states:
“Allah accepts only from those who are God-Fearing” (Surah al-Maaidah:27)
It is reported that the companions used to fear that their deeds
would not be accepted by Allah because of this reason. If that was the
fear of the companions, how much more should be the case for us?? It is
clearly not enough simply to perform a deed for it to be accepted by
Allah (swt) and for Him to be pleased with it. We should strive to
purify our intentions, our conduct and our sources of livelihood, as
well as asking ourselves whether we really fear Allah (swt) if we hope to have our deeds accepted by Him (swt) and be source of reward for us in the Hereafter.
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