Is
'Sawaab' fruitful in the life
hereafter alone?
By:
Khurshid Imam
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A.
Introduction.
Most
Muslims commonly understand that when they do good work they 'earn sawaab'. It is like earning some 'points'
or like 'crediting some amount' in their account. In the life hereafter these
'points' or 'credited amount' will help them in getting blessings of paradise.
The
whole idea gives an impression that 'doing good deeds' has no result in the
worldly life, doing good deeds simply increases your sawaab tally and it will be helpful in the life hereafter only.
From
top to bottom the terminology of sawaab
is misunderstood among masses. This misunderstanding acts as a catalyst in
making the community handicapped. You don’t feel much motivation for doing
constructive work in different aspects of life because they don’t bring any
good in the worldly life – as per the popular understanding of sawaab. You have to wait till life
hereafter in order to see any benefit of sawaab.
Eventually, rest of the world works for the betterment of humanity because they
see the good results here only. Muslims don’t do so because they have the idea
in the back of their mind that good deeds will be helpful to them in the akhirah only.
B.
Meaning
of sawaab.
Arabic
word sawaab comes from the root word thā
wāw bā (ث و ب) which occurs 28 times in the Quran. It means “to return to its desired condition”
or “to be evident as result”
or “to reach to its destination as a
result of the act”.
1. Al
Raghib Dictionary meaning:
Source: Al-Mufradat fi
Gharib al-Quran, dictionary of Qur'anic terms by Islamic scholar Al-Raghib
al-Isfahani. Page 183, Urdu version.
2. Lane’s
dictionary:
Going
through the meaning, we can surely say that popular understanding of sawaab is pretty different. While we
assume that sawaab is something that
is “earned”, the actual meaning conveys sawaab
to be the evident result of actions.
C.
Quranic
use of sawaab.
1.
Sawaab in Duniya and Akhirah
People usually think that sawaab is
relevant for akhirah only. Quran has
made clear that sawaab applies for
both.
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وَمَنْ يُرِدْ ثَوَابَ
الدُّنْيَا نُؤْتِهِ مِنْهَا وَمَنْ يُرِدْ ثَوَابَ الْآَخِرَةِ نُؤْتِهِ مِنْهَا وَسَنَجْزِي
الشَّاكِرِين
“… And whoever desires sawaab in (this) world, We shall give him of it; and whoever
desires sawaab in the Hereafter, We
shall give him thereof. And We shall reward the grateful.” Quran 3:145
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مَنْ كَانَ يُرِيدُ ثَوَابَ الدُّنْيَا فَعِنْدَ اللَّهِ ثَوَابُ الدُّنْيَا وَالْآَخِرَةِ
“Whoever desires sawaab
in this life of the world, then with Allah (Alone and none else) is the sawaab of this worldly life and of the
Hereafter…”. Quran 4:134
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فَآَتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ ثَوَابَ الدُّنْيَا وَحُسْنَ ثَوَابِ الْآَخِرَةِ وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ
الْمُحْسِنِينَ
“And Allah gave them sawaab in this world, and the excellent sawaab of the Hereafter. For Allah loves those who do good”. Quran
3:148
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In the below Ayah sawaab
is given in the form of victory. Victory is the result of good deeds – evident
as sawaab.
فَأَنْزَلَ السَّكِينَةَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَأَثَابَهُمْ فَتْحًا قَرِيبًا
“…and He sent down As-Sakinah (calmness and
tranquility) upon them, and He gave sawaab
to them with a near victory.”. Quran 48:18
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Similarly, there are many references in Quran where
Allah has explained about the sawaab
in the akhrah or life hereafter. For
ex- Quran 5:85, 3:195, 18:31
Some of the qualities of the people who get sawaab are:
· Those
who are grateful - Quran 3:145. Being grateful means utilizing skills,
blessings, faculties in constructive ways.
· Those
who fought in the way of God without surrendering, they continued in spite of
weakness, showed steadfastness. Quran 3:146
· They
sought forgiveness from Allah for their sins. Quran 3:147
· Those
who have real faith [in laws of God] and do constructive deeds. Quran 18:30. It
means people who understand the laws of God and act as per them.
2.
Sawaab as noun in sense of “A place
of return”
وَإِذْ جَعَلْنَا الْبَيْتَ مَثَابَةً لِلنَّاسِ وَأَمْنًا
“And [mention] when We made the House a place of return for the
people and [a place of] security….” Quran 2:125
3.
Sawaab as noun in sense of “garment”
Used in sense of clothes in Quran 11:5, 18:31, 22:19,
24:58, 24:60, 71:7, 74:4, 76:21
4.Sawaab can be negative also
Sawaab does
not mean “earning reward” but it is actually “result of actions”. This result
can be negative also. For bad deeds, there will be bad result.
a. Distress
in the form of Sawaab.
فَأَثَابَكُمْ غَمًّا بِغَمٍّ
“… There did Allah give you sawaab (in the form of) one distress after another by way of
requital to teach you not to grieve for that which had escaped you, nor for
that which had befallen you”. Quran 3:153
b. Sawaab
given to those who did kufr.
هَلْ ثُوِّبَ
الْكُفَّارُ مَا كَانُوا يَفْعَلُونَ
“Have those who did kufr [not] been rewarded [this Day] for what they used to do?”.
Quran 83:36
c. Worse
form of Sawaab.
قُلْ هَلْ أُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِشَرٍّ مِنْ ذَلِكَ مَثُوبَةً عِنْدَ اللَّهِ
مَنْ لَعَنَهُ اللَّهُ وَغَضِبَ عَلَيْهِ
"Say, "Shall I inform you of [what is] worse than that sawaab from Allah? [It is that of] those whom Allah has cursed and
with whom He became angry…. Quran 5:60
D.
Walk
the talk.
Quran makes it clear that for good deeds the results
will be good. Look at the communities / races / nations who do constructive
work for the benefit of mankind. They witness good results of their work in
this world. All the development in the field of science, technology, medicine,
agriculture, industries etc. that has brought relief, comfort and ease for the
mankind is sawaab [desired result] of
the work done by people.
If we want to raise the bar of the community; if we
want to see good results in this worldly affairs, then we need to do
constructive work. The sawaab of good
deeds will be given to us in this world as well as in the hereafter.
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Absolutely correct sir
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