Return and Reward – Doing for Allah or for nafs?

Return to your Rab [Lord], He is happy with you [Radziyya] and you being happy with Him [Mardziyya]! (Al Fajr:28)

No matter how much I get hurt, I still keep on going because I am doing it for Allah. If you get hurt, it means that Allah has accepted your good deed. What is the logic behind that?

This is the continuation of the article of last month. You can read the previous part here…

Return

I will explain it to you. Let us say you help somebody and they be nice to you. You have a return in this, right? So you did not do nothing for nothing. You had a return. You did not expect it but you are still getting a return. It is a smile, or “thank you,” or money, or this, or that.

Return = Profit for the nafs

And then in the meantime, you are feeling good, right? So you did well. So this “feeling good” that you did well is…, what happened to this now? Then that is your nafs [ego], right? (It feels good) to your nafs.

No Return = Loss for the nafs + Doing for Allah

But if you get hurt and still continue, what does it mean? You did something good, you did not get any payment in return and your nafs did not get to feel good either because it got hurt. The nafs got hurt but your heart does not get hurt. Why? Because you are doing it for Allah and Allah did not hurt you.

Your heart is happy but your nafs is unhappy

Because, “Look at this, how ungrateful a person he is, or she is, or it is. You do this to her and she does this to you.” What do you expect? She is, or he is with nafs, of course this is going to happen. But if you did this for him or her, you wasted your time. If you do it for Allah, Allah does not waste your effort.

No Return = Reward from Allah

Allah will (reward you) and they are still expecting a reward but (with) Allah – I am not looking (for it), but if Allah gives, I am not going to reject it either, but I am not looking for a reward. Yes, there is a reward, what is the reward? May Allah be pleased. That is our reward, (it) is good will of Allah. Allah is pleased or not, that is the part.

Qur’an References

Whatever you possess is temporary, but whatever is with Allah is permanent. There is no doubt that We will pay those who are steadfast and persevere a compensation in proportion to the best of what they used to do. (Al Nahl:96)

Click here for more references from the Qur’an…

Keywords

Fi’il-i Muhammad: the example shown in Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) daily actions of how human beings should live in accordance with Allah’s wishes; Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) implementation of sharia; tariqa

sunna: the observed behavior of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

tariqa: path; Sufi order

This is an edited excerpt of a Sohbet given on May 10, 2008 by Murshid Shaykh Taner Vargonen Ansari and published here on April 24, 2023. The translation of the Qur’an verses are also from Murshid Shaykh Taner Vargonen Ansari.

Did you read the other parts of this Sohbet about Relationship, or would you like to read them again?
Here are the links below:

Introduction

Problems and Solutions

Examples

Relationship with Kids

Relationship with The Qur’an

Do you have any questions?

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Love, peace and togetherness in goodness

Ya Wadud Ya Salaam Ya Jami Ya Nafi