Sincerity

Allah, the Almighty, says, " And they have been commanded no more than this: to worship
Allah, offering him sincere devotion" [98:5]


Allah’s Command to His first and foremost creature, man, has been connected with only two things; the first is worship, which means complete obedience His Divine Commands; and the second is sincerity, which is purifying the heart from doubt and polytheism. Worship is exterior aspect of devotion, while sincerity is an interior one.


Worship is connected with parts of the body, whereas sincerity is connected with the heart. Worship is ostensible, while sincerity is secret and hidden. This means that the true Muslim obeys Allah’s commands completely by his organs, and has sincerity in his heart. It is clear that sincerity is part of belief. Nay, rather it is the very belief.

Motives, which lead someone to a certain action, push him to perfect it, and encourage him to bear hardship and spend a lot for it, are numerous and various.

Some of these motives are closely linked to work, and could be noticed with deeds and actions. Others are distant and require some effort and insight in order to be realized. Some are so clear and obvious that raise no disputation or disagreement. Others are so ambiguous and hidden inside the human soul that they bring about a lot of disputation and disagreement to define or evaluate.


Some motives are instinctive, combined within human nature and urge man to maintain his existence, its safety, perfection and continuity.Some motives are acquired and stem from the soul after man gets to know his Lord, himself and what has been prepared for him of the everlasting blessings in the Garden of Paradise, as wide as the heavens and earth. The more good beneficial knowledge a human being acquires as demanded by Allah, the nobler the motive which urges him to great deeds and high morals are.

The more man is far away from the knowledge leading to Allah, the lower the psychological motive and the more debased deeds and traits are.Good deeds manifest firm belief. And belief without deeds is like a tree without fruits.


Moreover, good deeds are the price for Paradise and the only way to it. In Paradise, believers assume their positions according to the size and multitude of their righteous deeds. To this effect, Allah All Mighty says,

“Enter you in the Garden, because of (the good) which you did (in the world).” [XVI: 32] “And to all are (assigned) degrees according to the deeds which they have done.” [46; 19]The value of a certain act depends , before anything else, upon the motive(s) behind it.


Moreover, only motives can determine the real value of any action. If someone, for instance, finds a valuable silver coin in the street and bends down to pick it up with the intention to look for its owner, he would be considered a good-doer and will be well-rewarded. If, however, the same coin is picked up by someone with the intention of taking it for themselves, he would be considered an evil-doer and will be severely punished. Both acts are but one and the same;
but it is merely intention which makes the former good, and the latter bad.

It was narrated
on the authority of Omar bin Al-Khattab, who said, ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah saying, “Verily, deeds are (rewarded) according to intentions; and, verily, everyone will gets what
he has intended.

Whosoever migrates for the sake of Allah and His Messenger, his migration will be
(considered accordingly) for the sake of Allah and His Messenger. But whosoever migrates
for the sake of a worldly benefit or a woman to marry, his migration will be (considered as having been done) for the purpose for which he has migrated.” Allah, the Almighty, also
says,

“He (Allah), Who created death and life that He may try you - which of you is best in deed.” (67. 2)

Fudhail bin Ayadh interpreted the clause “Which of you is best in deed” as “which of you are the most sincere and correct in deed.”

And when he was asked, “O Abu Ali! Which deed is the most sincere and correct?”,
he replied, “If an act is done out of sincerity, but is not correct, it will not be accepted.
And if it is correct but lacks sincerity, it will not be accepted, either. No act will be accepted, unless it is correct, sincere and in pursuit of the good pleasure of Allah:

“We feed you for the sake of Allah alone. No reward do we desire from you nor thanks.” [76; 6] Correctness of deed means being in agreement with Prophetic Sunnah (the tradition of the holy Prophet (PBUH).

This is because Allah has said, “Say if you do love Allah, follow me. Allah will love you and forgive you your sins, for Allah is Oft -forgiving, Most Merciful” (III. 31) Then Fudhail recited the verse, “Whosoever expects to meet his Lord, let him work righteousness, and in the worship of his Lord admit no one as partner.”[18.110]

Allah has also said, “And We shall turn to whatever deeds they did (in this life) and We shall make such deeds as floating dust scattered about.” [25,23]

The deeds mentioned in this verse are said to mean the deeds which are not in agreement with the Sunnah and those which have been done for the sake of others than Allah.In a Divine Hadith, Allah All High says, “I am the Self-Sufficient, Who need no partners.


Whosoever does an act for the sake of others with Me, his act will be considered merely for the partner (whom he associates with Me); and I am exempt from it.”In another Divine Hadith He, Glory be to Him, says,

“Sincerity is one of My Secrets; I put it in the hearts of those whom I love of My slaves.”* * *Sincerity in seeking the good pleasure of Allah, exalts the worldly act and turns it into an accepted worship.

Thus, any act on the part of man for earning sustenance turns into an accepted worship if the following requirements are fulfilled: It must be fundamentally lawful, and intended for self-sufficiency. It should be spend on man’s family and those under his care. It should be
intended to be in service of people in general and Muslims in particular. It must not entail disobedience to Allah or distract man from performing the obligatory or religious obligations.

It is narrated that a pious person once saw a man busy at praying in a mosque without doing
any work.

He asked him “who feeds you?” “My brother”, replied the man. The righteous man said, “ Your brother is more devoted than you are.”Imam Muslim also narrated in his Sahih that the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, ‘No Muslim plants a plant or cultivates a plant, so that a bird or a human being eats from, it will be a charity for him.”Thus, good intentions turn mere worldly deeds turn into worships and deeds.


Man’s responsibilities towards himself, his family and children turns into good and generously rewarded deeds if accompanied by good intentions. The prophet (PBUH) said, “Whatever you feed yourself is a charity for you, and whatever you feed your wife is a charity for you, and whatever you feed your servant is a charity for you.


” Sa’ad bin Abi Waqqas narrated that the Messenger of Allah, (PBUH), said, “you will certainly never spend anything seeking the good pleasure of Allah but you will be rewarded for it.” One may wonder when one gets to know that only sincerity in seeking the good pleasure of Allah is considered as a good deed if man is prevented from doing such a good deed by certain irresistible circumstances.In the battle of ‘Usrah, some people came to the prophet (PBUH). They wanted to fight against the infidels with him.

They offered their lives in the Cause of Allah; but the prophet (PBUH) could not recruit them. They went back because they were sad because of being left behind the battlefield. The following Koranic verse was revealed about them:“Nor (is there blame) on those who came to you to be provided with mounts, when you said, ‘I can find no mounts for you,’ they turned back, while their eyes streaming with tears of grief that they could not find anything to spend (for Jihad).” (IX; 92) The Prophet (PBUH) praised their belief and sincerity and addressed the army going ahead for the battle, “There are some people left behind us in Medina. we do not walk on a mountain pass nor a valley but they are with us. They have been excusably detained.

” Moreover, the Prophet (PUBH) considers illness and travel, when accompanied by sincerity in seeking the Reward of Allah as a reason for getting the reward of good deeds, which one used to do when one was healthy and at home. To this effect, he (PBUH) said “ If a slave (of Allah) becomes ill or travels, a better reward will be written for him for the good things that he used to do before his illness or travel.”

If hypocrisy, which is the opposite of sincerity, sneaks into good deeds or even worships and devotional services, it turns them into deeds worthy of blame and punishment. To this effect, Allah Almighty says, “ Woe unto the worshippers who are neglectful of their prayers, those who (want but) to be seen (of men) but refuse (to supply) (even) neighborly needs.” [107:4-7]


Whenever hypocrisy creeps into spending money, it renders it void and valueless in the sight of Allah. To this effect, Allah All Mighty says, “O you who believe render not your charity void by reminders of your generosity or by injury like those who spend their substance to be seen of men but believe neither in Allah nor in the Last Day. They are in parable like a hard barren rock, on which is a little soil: on it falls heavy rain which leaves it (just) a bare stone; they will be able to do nothing with ought they have earned, and Allah guided not those who reject faith.” [11:264] The Prophet also says, “Be sincere in your religion; a little amount of work will be enough for you”


* * *Here are some of the sayings of some scholars about sincerity:- Sincerity is that man’s secret acts must be better than his open ones. Hypocrisy is that man’s open deeds are better than his secret ones. And truthfulness in sincerity is that man’s interior should be better than his exterior.- Sincerity is to single Allah, the Almighty, for obedience and devotion.


One should purify his deeds from eye-service.- A sincere person is never a hypocrite; and a truthful one is never self-conceited. Sincerity is never perfected except by truthfulness just as truthfulness is never perfected except by sincerity; and they both can never be perfected without patient. - Sincerity is being heedless of people’s observation of man’s deeds and being in continuous observation of the Creator. Whosoever beautifies himself for people with what he does not possess drops in Allah’s estimation.- It has been said that abandoning work for the sake of people is hypocrisy; and performing any act for the sake of people is polytheism.


But if Allah keeps you away from them both, that is sincerity.- Sincerity is the secret between Allah and His slave; it should be known by no one else. - Sincerity is that you should not seek any witness on your deeds other than Allah, and that you should seek no reward from any one except Him.- Whosoever feels hat he is sincere enough, his sincerity lacks sincerity.An when a true believer gets rid of being pride of his sincerity, he will become of the chosen sincere elite. This is because the hardest thing to man is sincerity, for it has no benefit from it.* * *Before he embraced Islam, Zaid Al-Khaiyr was one of the bravest and most generous people. When the news of the Prophet (PBUH) reached him. He desired to know about his religion; so he prepared his camel, invited prominent men of his people to visit Yathrib (Medina). When they came nearer to Medina, they went straight towards the Prophet’s mosque and made their animals kneel down at its door. It so happened that when they entered, the Prophet (PBUH) was on the pulpit delivering a sermon. They were highly impressed by his sermon. They were amazed by the attachment of Muslims to him, their careful listening to him, and their being affected by his sayings. When the Messenger (PBUH) saw them, he said, “I am better for you than ‘Uzza and all what you worship. I am better for you than the black camel (metaphorical expression of the most precious wealth in Arabia), which you worship other than Allah.” When the Prophet (PBUH) finished his speech, Zaid, the knight, stood up among the crowds of Muslims having the appearance of one of the most handsome men with perfect countenance and a tall stature and began speaking out with his loud voice, “O Muhammad, I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that you are the Messenger of Allah.” The Prophet came towards him and said “Who are you?” He replied, “I am Zaid, the knight”. The Prophet (PBUH) said, “Nay, but you are Zaid the good, not Zaid the knight. All Praise be to Allah, Who brought you from your homeland and made your heart soft for accepting Islam.” Then the Prophet (PBUH) took him in honor to his house with some of his Companions among whom were Omar.At home, the Prophet (PBUH) put a pillow for Zaid. It was difficult for him to lean on it at the presence of the Prophet (PBUH). He said, “O Messenger of Allah! I swear by Allah I cannot lean in your presence!” The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, “O Zaid! All men who were described to me proved to be inferior to the image I had made about them, except for you, Zaid. O Zaid! you have two traits that are beloved by Allah and His Messenger.” He asked, “What are they, O Messenger of Allah?” The Prophet (PBUH) replied, “ Patience and Clemency.” “Praise to Allah that He has made me as Allah and His Messenger like! O Messenger of Allah! Just give me three hundred knights and I guarantee to you that I shall attack the Romans and defeat them.” The Prophet (PBUH) appreciated his courage and said, “What a (great) man you are!” Then all of Zaid’s people who were with him embraced Islam as soon as he did. When he wanted to go back to his people’s land, the Prophet (PBUH) bade him farewell him and said, “What a (great) man this is!” On his way back he passed away. And it was not a long time between his acceptance of Islam and his death; but his sincerity for Islam and his great ambitions for the spread of this religion sufficed him from lots of work blemished by hypocrisy. In this context, the Messenger of Allah addressed one of his venerable Companions, “O Mou’ath! Be sincere in your religion, a little work suffices you.”