Good deeds

Good deeds

What exactly are good deeds (as-salihat)? I know some but maybe not all of them.
Good deeds are those which are in accordance with sharee’ah, and which are done sincerely for the sake of Allaah. Shaykh al-Islam [Ibn Taymiyah] defined ‘ibaadah (worship) as “a general term which includes all that Allaah loves and is pleased with, be it words or deeds, both inward and outward; these are of many kinds and we cannot list them, let alone enumerate them, but we will mention some of them:
1.Belief in Allaah – which includes belief in Allaah, His angels, His Books, His Messengers, the Last Day, and the divine will and decree (al-qadar), both good and bad.
2.Prayer done on time – there are five prayers that Allaah has enjoined during the night and day. The Sahaabah (may Allaah be pleased with hem) were all agreed that the one who does not pray is a kaafir. It is not permissible to delay the prayers beyond their appointed time. It is obligatory to perform all the obligatory parts of the prayer, and the Muslim should pray as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) prayed.
3.Acceptable Hajj – which means:
a.It should be done with halaal money (earned from permissible sources)
b.One should avoid immoral actions, sin and arguments whilst doing Hajj
c.He should perform all the rituals according to the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).
d.He should not do Hajj to show off, rather he should do it sincerely for the sake of Allaah.
e.He should not follow it with any act of disobedience or sin.
4.Honouring one's parents – which means obeying them in acts of obedience towards Allaah; it is not permissible to obey them in matters of disobedience or sin. Honouring them also means not raising one's voice to them, and not offending them with hurtful words. It also includes spending on them, and serving them.
5.Jihad for the sake of Allaah. Allaah has prescribed jihad in order to establish Tawheed and spread Islam throughout the world. Allaah has prepared a great reward for the mujaahideen.
6.Loving for the sake of Allaah and hating for the sake of Allaah. This means that the Muslim loves his fellow Muslim for the sake of Allaah, not for his colour, nationality or wealth, rather for his obedience to his Lord and his closeness to Him. Similarly he hates the sinner for his disobedience towards Allaah.
7.Reading and reciting Qur’aan – whether that is in the portion he reads each day or what he recites in prayers at night (qiyaam al-layl).
8.Persisting in acts of worship even if they are little. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) loved actions that were done consistently, even if they were little. A small action done persistently is better than a greater action done intermittently.
9.Fulfilling one's trusts. This is an obligatory action and is one of the greatest of deeds. It is known in Islam that the hypocrite is the one who betrays his trust and does not render trusts back to the people who entrusted them to him.
10. Being forgiving towards people. This means foregoing one's personal rights, forgiving the one who has done you wrong, if doing so will lead to his changing, or if he has repented and regrets what he did. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “A person only increases in honour by forgiving.” Narrated by Muslim, 2588
11. Being truthful in speech. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “A man will keep on speaking the truth and endeavouring to tell the truth until he will be recorded with Allaah as a speaker of truth. Truthfulness is a means of salvation; it is a great characteristic which was one of the features of the Prophets and those who followed them in truth.” Narrated by Muslim, 2607.
12. Spending for the sake of Allaah. This includes spending on jihad, and spending on one's parents, the poor and needy, on building mosques, on printing copies of the Qur’aan and Islamic books, and spending on one’s family and children.
13. Ensuring that the Muslims are safe from one’s words and actions. That means refraining from gossip, backbiting, slander, insults and curses, and refraining from hitting or beating those who do not deserve such treatment.
14. Feeding the hungry – which includes feeding both humans and animals.
15. Spreading the greeting of salaam to those whom you know and those whom you do not know – except in the case of those whom the texts say we should not initiate the greeting of salaam with, namely the kuffaar.
16. Helping the needy, wayfarers and those who are helpless.
17. Keeping your evil away from people, which is an act of charity that may benefit you.
And there are many other good deeds.
The following hadeeth enumerates several good deeds:
Al-Bayhaqi narrated that Abu Dharr said: I said, “O Messenger of Allaah, what will save a person from Hellfire?”
He said, “Belief in Allaah.”
I said, “O Messenger of Allaah, are there are any deeds that should accompany that belief?”
He said, ‘He should give from that provision which Allaah has granted him.”
I said, “O Messenger of Allaah, what if he is poor and does not have anything to give?”
He said, “He should enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil.”
I said, “O Messenger of Allaah, what if he cannot enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil?”
He said, “He should help the one who is helpless (i.e., has no skills and cannot earn a learning).”
I said, “What if he himself is helpless and cannot do anything?”
He said, “He should help one who has been wronged.”
I said, “What if he is weak and cannot help one who has been wronged?”
He said, “You do not want to think of your companion as having any good in him. Let him refrain from harming people.”
I said, “O Messenger of Allaah, if he does that, will he enter Paradise?”
He said, “There is no believer who does not strive to acquire one of these characteristics, but I will take him by the hand and lead him into Paradise.”
Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in al-Targheeb, 876
And Allaah is the Source of strength.
Referenced Link

Good Deeds to Fill Your Book of Deeds With

Not everyone enjoys writing, and not many people will ever think of writing a book in their lifetime. Because it is a laborious task that requires effort, dedication and above all, passion. But there is a book that we are all going to write, every single one of us. And that is our Book of Deeds. It is a book that we continue to fill with our actions every day that we are alive. It is the book where all our good and bad deeds are recorded, and it is the book that will serve as the basis for our destiny on the Day of Judgement.

What Does Your Book of Deeds Contain?

Angels are assigned to every one of us to write down our actions to the minutest of details. Every word that you uttered on earth is written down, every tweet, every Facebook post, every sneeze, every breath. Nothing we do on earth goes unrecorded.
On the Day of Judgment, it is said that we will receive our book of deeds and all our actions on earth will be shown to us. Whoever receives their Book of Deeds on the right hand is considered fortunate, because that means that they have more good deeds than bad, while the opposite is for those who receive their books with their left hands.
It is a no-brainer then, that if absolutely all our actions are written down, then we need to consciously do our best to fill our Book of Deeds with as many good deeds as humanly possible.
We have gathered five actions that everyone can do on a consistent basis to increase the goodness in their Book of Deeds, in sha’a Allah.

Perform Salah

Salah is an obligatory act of worship for every post-puberty Muslim, and it is one of the pillars of Islam. On the Day of Judgment, the first thing that will be judged from our Book of Deeds is salah. “The first thing for which a person will be brought to account will be his Salah. If it is complete (all well and good), otherwise Allah will say: ‘Look and see if My slave did any voluntary prayer.’ If he is found to have done voluntary prayers, his obligatory prayers will be completed therewith.” (Sunan an-Nasa’i)
This hadith is an encouragement on the importance of filling our Book of Deeds with as much Salah as possible. Perform the five daily prayers and follow them up with as many nawafil prayers as you can perform.

Give Charity

There is literally an infinite number of ways to give charity in Islam. Any good deed done to another person, solely for the sake of Allah (ta’ala) is an act of charity. Charity is not just about giving money, so even if you do not have a penny to spare after paying all your own bills at the end of the month, you can fill your Book of Good Deeds even just by smiling at a stranger.
Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said: “Your smiling in the face of your brother is charity, commanding good and forbidding evil is charity, your giving directions to a man lost in the land is charity for you. Your seeing for a man with bad sight is a charity for you, your removal of a rock, a thorn or a bone from the road is charity for you. Your pouring what remains from your bucket into the bucket of your brother is charity for you.” (Jami at-Tirmidhi)
You may also like: Sabr in Islam: Does It Mean Complacency?

Memorize the Quran

One of the greatest blessings that Allah (ta’ala)can grant a person is to make them a memorizer of the Quran. It is also one of the most rewarding actions that anyone can do in their lifetime. For every memorizer of the words of Allah (ta’ala), they will be admitted into Jannah based on what they have memorized.
Even if you have not memorized any portion of the Quran, reading it is equally very rewarding.
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, “Whoever recites a letter from the Book of Allah, he will be credited with a good deed, and a good deed gets a ten-fold reward. I do not say that Alif-Lam-Mim is one letter, but Alif is a letter, Lam is a letter and Mim is a letter.” (Riyad as-Saliheen)
Think of all the goodness that you will be filling your book of deeds with and use it to motivate yourself to recite the Quran every day.

tay Truthful

In a world where people earn a living by deceiving other people out of their own wealth, and where it has become difficult to find many truthful people, a Muslim should strive to fill their book of deeds with truthfulness. Speak the truth when it is ugly, or when it is uncomfortable, and even when it is against you. Because for us as Muslims, our integrity in this world, and our goodness in the eyes of Allah (ta’ala) has a lot to do with how truthful we are.
Even when it is easier to lie your way out of a situation or make easy money from being dishonest, remember this hadith:
“It is obligatory for you to tell the truth, for truth leads to virtue and virtue leads to Paradise, and the man who continues to speak the truth and endeavours to tell the truth is eventually recorded as truthful with Allah, and beware of telling of a lie for telling of a lie leads to obscenity and obscenity leads to Hellfire, and the person who keeps telling lies and endeavours to tell a lie is recorded as a liar with Allah.” (Muslim)

tBe Good to Parents

Many parent-child relationships are quite problematic these days if we are being honest with ourselves. And many of them are due to parents and their children being unable to agree on things that concern the child, especially if they are adults.
Now, we see more children becoming estranged from their parents, and the younger ones spend their days looking forward to freedom from their parents.
This should not be the norm for us as Muslims. One of the important obligations that a Muslim has on earth is kindness and respect towards their parents and at all times this should be upheld. This does not mean that parents get a pass for any negative behavior towards their child, but your own concern should be to fill your own book of deeds with positive deeds like obedience to your parents.
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “The Lord’s pleasure is in the parent’s pleasure, and the Lord’s anger is in the parent’s anger.”(Tirmidhi). And he also said that one of the best of deeds is kindness to parents. Wouldn’t you want that in your book of deeds?
Like I said, there is literally an infinite number of ways through which we can earn good deeds, but commit yourself to doing any of the above every single day and fill your book of deeds with goodness.