Good and Bad

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Good and bad are two adjectives qualifying human actions. They transcend religious rituals such as praying and fasting, to extend to acts related to all aspects of life.

A good deed is what leads one to Paradise and a bad is what leads one to Hell.

مَنْ عَمِلَ صَـٰلِحًا مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَىٰ وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُۥ حَيَوٰةً طَيِّبَةً ۖ وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُم بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ ﴿٩٧

Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer - We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward [in the Hereafter] according to the best of what they used to do.

[Qur'an An-Nahl 16:97]

لَّيْسَ بِأَمَانِيِّكُمْ وَلَآ أَمَانِىِّ أَهْلِ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ ۗ مَن يَعْمَلْ سُوٓءًا يُجْزَ بِهِۦ وَلَا يَجِدْ لَهُۥ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّـهِ وَلِيًّا وَلَا نَصِيرًا ﴿١٢٣

Paradise is not [obtained] by your wishful thinking nor by that of the People of the Scripture. Whoever does a wrong will be recompensed for it, and he will not find besides Allah a protector or a helper.

[Qur'an An-Nisaa' 4:123]

Good and bad should only be understood from a purely Islamic perspective and according to Islamic paradigm. The nature of what is good and what is bad can be understood only in the light of the Qur'an and the teachings of the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace.

It is imperative for a Muslim to learn his religion properly to know what the Lord wants from him. Something that one may deem it as good is actually bad, and vice versa.

For example, hijab (women's Islamic dress code) is considered bad in Western societies as a sign of oppressing women, but it is considered good in Islam as, in part, it is a sign of women's chastity, self-respect, and so on.

Islam is a social religion. A Muslim is neither one who prays and fasts and hides in his room, nor one who is a workaholic and finds no time to pray and play with his family. An ideal image of a Muslim is the one who affects all of his surroundings positively while worshiping Allah.

The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, noticed a man constantly staying at the mosque. He asked his Companions: "Who is supporting him?"

They replied: "His brother."

So the Prophet said: "His brother is better than him."

This story demonstrates that a man's worldly work which benefits him and his society is considered good, while the religious act which causes him to be lazy and dependent is bad.

One of the most important criteria of qualifying an action is the intention behind it. Sometimes a deed appears to be good and compatible with Shariah, but the one who did it meant something else in his or her heart.

Allah says,

وَٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّخَذُوا۟ مَسْجِدًا ضِرَارًا وَكُفْرًا وَتَفْرِيقًۢا بَيْنَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَإِرْصَادًا لِّمَنْ حَارَبَ ٱللَّـهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ مِن قَبْلُ ۚ وَلَيَحْلِفُنَّ إِنْ أَرَدْنَآ إِلَّا ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ ۖ وَٱللَّـهُ يَشْهَدُ إِنَّهُمْ لَكَـٰذِبُونَ ﴿١٠٧

And [there are] those [hypocrites] who took for themselves a mosque for causing harm and disbelief and division among the believers and as a station for whoever had warred against Allah and His Messenger before. And they will surely swear, "We intended only the best." And Allah testifies that indeed they are liars. 

[Qur'an At-Tawbah 9:107]

Building a mosque is one of the best deeds in Islam, but in this situation, some enemies of the Muslim community wanted to build another mosque which was far away from the main mosque where the Muslims used to congregate. They meant to split the Muslim community at that time and cause division and disunity among the Muslims. Thus, although the deed appears to be good, yet its evil intention makes it bad.

Any deed, whether it is good or bad, is going to be for the intention behind it, and not for the deed itself. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said,

Actions are but by intentions and every man shall have only that which he intended. Thus he whose migration (Hijrah to Madinah from Makkah) was for Allah and His Messenger, his migration was for Allah and His Messenger, and he whose migration was to achieve some worldly benefit or to take some woman in marriage, his migration was for that for which he migrated.

[Bukhari]

It has been said that Islam revolves around intention. Some of the scholars have said that it is 1/3rd of Knowledge, because the actions of man involve his heart, his tongue and his limbs, and hence the intention in the heart is 1/3rd of that.

May Allah guide us and give us tawfiq. Ameen. Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam