WHAT ARE “GOOD WORKS”?

In the final analysis, enjoining right and forbidding wrong is one of the most obligatory of actions and one of the best and most praiseworthy acts. Allah said:

[And He will test you, which of you are best in actions.] Qur’an 67/2.

Al-Fadheel ibn Ayaadh (A great Makkan scholar of the second century) said about the “good actions” mentioned in this aya:

“(i.e.) The most sincere, and the most correct. Verily any action if it is done in complete sincerity, but is not correct, it is rejected, and if it is completely correct, but is not done with total sincerity, it is rejected. Only that which is done with complete sincerity to Allah and correctness according to Allah’s law is acceptable. The sincere action is that which is purely for the sake of Allah, and the correct action that which is in the tradition (Sunnah).

It is a requirement of righteous deeds that they be done solely for the Face of Allah ta’ala, for Allah does not accept any actions except for those with which His Face alone was sought. This is as in the sahih hadith narrated by Abu Huraira that the Prophet said:

“Allah ta’ala says: I am the partner least in need of any partner. Whenever someone does an act, partly for me and partly for an imagined partner, I am completely free of that action, and it is wholly for the partner which was associated with me.”

This is the essence of Tauhid which is the basis of Islam. It is the deen of Allah with which He sent all of the Prophets. For its sake, He created the creation, and it is His right over all of His slaves: that they worship Him alone, and not associate with Him anything.

The righteous deeds which Allah and His Prophet have enjoined are simply obedience. Every act of obedience is a righteous deed, and it is the work dictated by the shari’a and the Sunnah. They are everything which has been enjoined upon us either as obligations or as commendable acts. This then is righteous deeds (Al-‘amal As-saalih), and it is what is good (hassan), and it is righteousness (Al-Birr), and it is all that is good (Al-khair). Its opposite is disobedience (Ma’siya), and corrupt action (Al-‘amal Al-faasid), bad deeds (As-Sayyi’aat), rebellion (Al-fujuur), oppression (Adh-dhulm), and transgression (Al-baghyu).

Every action must contain two thing: intention, and movement (action). Thus, the Prophet said:

“The most truthful names are Harith (i.e. he who tills the earth) and Hammaam (one who ever sets objectives and seeks their fulfillment).”

Everyone is a tiller and a seeker of objectives he has actions, and he has intentions. However, the only praiseworthy intention which Allah accepts and rewards, is the intentions of doing an action solely for the sake of Allah.

The praiseworthy deed is the righteous deed, and it is the the deed with which we have been ordered. For this reason, Umar ibn Al-Khattab used to say in his du’a:

“O, Allah make all of my deeds righteous, and make all of them purely for your Face, and do not make therein any share at all for anyone else.”

This being the case for all righteous deeds, it is also the case for enjoining right and forbidding wrong, and it is necessary for it to be so (i.e. the act of ordering or forbidding must be good and praiseworthy which as we have seen means that it is correct andsolely for the sake of Allah, is obedience to Allah, and is done for no ulterior motive.) This is in reference to the one who enjoins and forbids others.