Memorise and practice a new hadeeth every week!
By Mawlana Junayd Makda Sahib
The Most Beloved Deeds
أَحَبُّ الْأَعْمَالِ إِلَى اللَّهِ أَدْوَمُهَا وَإِنْ قَلَّ
Our Beloved Nabi ﷺ said, “The deeds most beloved in the eyes of Allah Ta’aala are those deeds carried out with continuity (regularity) although they may be small”
Sahih al-Muslim
Explanation
When we think of doing something to please Allah Ta’aala, our immediate thought is to do lots of worship. We assume Allah likes us to give large donations, read lots of Quran in one go and stand for long hours in salah without any break.
In reality, pleasing Allah and making Him happy is so much more easier. Allah Ta’ala doesn’t mind small amounts of worship. In fact from this hadeeth, we learn He actually likes it as long as it is done regularly. This is what’s most important; doing something regularly.
Let’s look at the table below to understand this:
Ruqayya and Ahmad:
On Monday do the following:
1. Give £10 in charity
2. Read 1 Juzz Quran
3. Perform 10 optional salah
And then Tuesday to Sunday they do nothing.
Aishah and Hasan:
Daily (Monday to Sunday) do the following:
1. Give 50p in charity
2. Read 2 ruku of Quran
3. Perform 2 optional salaah
When we look at the two people we may think Ruqayya and Ahmad have done more so Allah must be happier with their actions, but in reality, Allah Ta’ala likes Aishah and Hasan’s actions more even though they are less. This is because their actions have been done daily.
Let’s look at two simple examples:
1) Vitamin tablets have many health benefits but who will benefit most, the one who takes an overdose of tablets in one day and takes nothing for the entire month or the person who takes a small dose every day? I’m sure we will all agree the second person will be the one to benefit!
2) Like this, a person does 5 hours of exercise once a month and does nothing thereafter and another person does 20 mins daily, again we all know the second person will have more chance of reaching his fitness goals than the first person.
Another everyday example:
Imagine two friends who make sure they talk every day, even if it is only for a few minutes, while another two friends only meet or talk once in a while. Which friendship will we say is stronger?
The rule for success is simple, we need to be consistent, and as we learn from this hadeeth it is the best way to make Allah happy.
So don’t wait for when you have time to do lots of worship, start now with small consistent steps and see your connection with Allah Ta’ala grow.
Ismail and his lesson learnt!
Ismail was a very popular student in school. All the teachers looked forward to having him in class and he was always eager to learn.
However there was one problem, he was not consistent in anything he did. Some days he would produce the best work in the class while on other days it was hard to tell who prepared the work, Ismail or his little sister!
This was always a concern for the teachers and no matter how hard they tried to help Ismail out of this habit, they failed.
Once Ismail attended a hadeeth lesson and the teacher was explaining how Allah Ta’aala likes good deeds which are done consistently rather than those which are done all in one go.
This reminded Ismail of his teachers advices and he could himself wanting to smile. It was when the teacher gave some examples that Ismail began to take it more serious. The example was of a person who read 30 Juzz Quran on the first day of every month and thereafter read nothing for 29 days and another person reads 1 Juzz every day. Who was better?
Ismail was thinking, that’s easy, they’re both the same! They’ll both complete 30 by the end of the month.
The teacher explained they weren’t the same. Ismail was surprised. The teacher explained that the one reading 1 Juzz every day was always going to be better and would benefit more. The teacher then smiled and said none of us will eat food for the entire month in one go will we? All the students laughed but within the laughter it was all suddenly beginning to make sense to him.
The teacher then explained why regularity was more important.
He said if you place a piece of wood under a tap of dripping water a time will come when this dripping water will leave a small dent in the wood. Ismail had recently done an experiment on this in school so this was a very easy example for him to understand. However if this dripping water was to be collected in a bucked and thrown over the wood all at once it would leave no dent or mark!
Like this was the case with our good actions. Consistency was very important.
Ismail left from this lesson with a changed view to life. First up was addressing his struggle in memorising the Quran. He had been attempting it for a few years, but he was miserably failing. This lesson was the answer to why he was struggling. He had no consistency. Some days he would try to learn a lot and other days he would not even read the Quran. He now knew what was required.
It was not just this, his entire outlook of life had changed. In school he suddenly knew what he needed to do to get the best grades and most importantly he knew what made Allah most happy.
Moral:
From this story we learn a true lesson for success in anything we do in life, we must be consistent. It is always better to start small and build to do something big that have regular ups and downs. This lesson will help us in every challenge we face in life as well as help us prepare for a good hereafter by making Allah Ta’aala happy with us.