Above is a question believed to be a point of reflection for faith and morally conscious hearts, for nothing comes into the minds of doers of good than to sought-after ways to be better in goodness. “How about raising my status of piousness in the sight of Allah?” “How about I don’t limit my goodness to just offering offering Solat?” “How about not allowing the consciousness of offering other good deeds, asides Solat, leave my heart?” “How about not seeing any good deed done by me as something so great, which has not been done before?”. It will be a bonus on our goodness scale if we intend, and actually actualize, pushing up our goodness with extra good, at the same time we offer our obligatory acts of worship.
It starts with the sincere consciousness of Allah, and His commands of bringing forth good and neglecting the bad, to ensure that our hearts are filled with the intention of nothing but all that is good, although the humanness in us may cause some slips on some steps of the way. Allah is All-Forgiving and will forgive our shortcomings if we sincerely seek it from Him. The possession of Allah’s consciousness is what further strengthens the mind and body to be in total submission to goodness in an active way, making it difficult to be filthy in one’s standards and making goodness a way of life, beyond Solat. It’s not intended to dissuade us from giving priority to Solat, as Solat itself can be likened to the life of believer, but the society should feel our good influence beyond the walls of the masjid, which is definitely better for our dunya and aakhirah.
It is illogically odd, to get immersed in the self-pleasure of any obligatory acts we put forth, that seeing the need for extra acts of goodness now seems unnecessary, and this is the reality of some people – people who are even seen as public figures of piousness with a large base of mentees. Some even go as far thinking that the good they’re doing, or the knowledge they seem to possess, are above those of others, and they are more deserving of Allah’s forgiveness than others. There’s a warning for them in the Hadith which says “Whoever says, ‘Allah will not forgive so and so,’ then Allah will surely forgive so and so, and will not forgive the one who made such statement.” The Prophet (PBUH) made clear Allah’s stance on this kind of offensively fallible act, and it’s definitely not a good one, on the perpetrator. We need to do good in such a way that we don’t see ourselves doing anything ‘special’, for this will create in us the humility to do more and more, without feeling complacent, in the end.
The efforts we make consistently, without seeing the need to relax on it, to earn Allah’s pleasure, are way better than those we make and see the need to relax on them, at a point, due to the convincement that they have been accepted by Allah or superior to other people’s.
May Allah give us the wherewithal to always follow-up on our good deeds, with more good deeds, and grant us acceptance of them. Aameen.
