Quran Academy

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.

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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)

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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.

Stay 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)

Be 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.

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