Allah Wants Us To Win
Note: Guess who's baaack! I know what you're thinking. I've had this ridiculously huge gap between updates. I know I've been MIA but life has kind of gotten in the way of regularly posting. Don't expect this to be a normal thing for now, but I really wanted to just come back because I had such a great thought that came to mind during this blessed month of Ramadan that I wanted to share it in blog form. While up at night during one of the last 10 nights of Ramadan, I was thinking very deeply about Allah's generosity. Like, man, oh, man, it's crazy how much we can underestimate that Allah is Ar-Rahman (The Most Compassionate) and Ar-Raheem (The Most Merciful). Let me elaborate.
Good Deeds vs. Bad Deeds
So one night before bed I was talking to my little 5-year-old son about Allah and how generous he is. I had already been telling him in bits and pieces about good deeds and bad deeds and how there's an angel on each of our shoulders: one that records all our good deeds in a book, and one that records our bad deeds.
While I told him he didn't need to worry about his deeds being recorded right now because he is still a young child, I told him of how important it is to have a large book of good deeds and have our bad deeds book as small as possible because there's a great reward in store for us if by the end of our life our good deeds are more than our bad.
I didn't want to overwhelm him too much at such a young age, but in the middle of giving him a bit of this education I couldn't help but tear up in amazement at how amazingly generous Allah is and how Allah wants us to attain paradise and basically stacks the odds ever in our favor with all these opportunities to score some huge points.
The Stats That We Can't See
Now being a sports fan, I love stats and numbers. When I'm catching an NBA game, I love to check out the box score and see the stats and how well a team or player did. I'm also a big video game fan and of course video games are big on statistics too--high scores, how many "kills" you get and so on and so forth.
I actually used the analogy of points and scores for my son when explaining the good deed and bad deed system that all humans have and how the main goal is to rack up as many good deeds as we possibly can before our time is up.
What's even more interesting is that in this age of social media, numbers and statistics mean so much to everyone. Trying to get likes and subscribers and followers and friends—all of these are numbers and statistics that people closely look at and even obsess over.
But the one stat that we cannot see and will not be able to know until the afterlife is our good deeds and our bad deeds. And these are the most important stats of all.
Whether we believe it or not, we are all competing with each other and with ourselves to try and outscore our bad deed book with good deeds. And while we don't have a ticker or scoreboard we can see of how well we're doing, believing Muslims can at least have peace of mind that Allah has stacked the deck and has given us a huge advantage to succeed.
Allah is rooting for us. Allah wants us to win!
How Allah Gamed The System In Our Favor
Now I'm not a scholar or anything, I'm the farthest thing from it but I do try my best to educate myself and grow my knowledge to the truth that comes from the Qur'an and the authentic Hadith and how it applies to life and our purpose--which is to worship Allah, be grateful to him and strive our utmost to do good. Our salvation depends on it.
Every one pursues his goal. Compete with each other in performing good deeds. Wherever you are, God will bring you all together. God has power over all things. (Holy Quran -Surah Al Baqarah 2:148)
So our mission? Do more good than we do bad. We're imperfect, flawed humans so we're going to do bad deeds, we just need to do more good deeds. Simple enough, right?
The awesome thing about this simple task is that Allah has gamed the system. He's bending the rules. It's not necessarily cheating because, well, Allah created everything so he makes the rules. But Allah has gamed the system FOR OUR BENEFIT.
Picture this. OUTSIDE OF RAMADAN, every good deed counts as 10 (MINIMUM) and every bad deed counts as 1 (MAXIMUM). On top of that--every good dead also erases a bad deed! Don't believe me? Let's go to the hadith.
Ibn Abbas reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَتَبَ الْحَسَنَاتِ وَالسَّيِّئَاتِ ثُمَّ بَيَّنَ ذَلِكَ فَمَنْ هَمَّ بِحَسَنَةٍ فَلَمْ يَعْمَلْهَا كَتَبَهَا اللَّهُ عِنْدَهُ حَسَنَةً كَامِلَةً وَإِنْ هَمَّ بِهَا فَعَمِلَهَا كَتَبَهَا اللَّهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ عِنْدَهُ عَشْرَ حَسَنَاتٍ إِلَى سَبْعِ مِائَةِ ضِعْفٍ إِلَى أَضْعَافٍ كَثِيرَةٍ وَإِنْ هَمَّ بِسَيِّئَةٍ فَلَمْ يَعْمَلْهَا كَتَبَهَا اللَّهُ عِنْدَهُ حَسَنَةً كَامِلَةً وَإِنْ هَمَّ بِهَا فَعَمِلَهَا كَتَبَهَا اللَّهُ سَيِّئَةً وَاحِدَةً
Verily, Allah has recorded good and bad deeds and He made them clear. Whoever intends to perform a good deed but does not do it, then Allah will record it as a complete good deed. If he intends to do it and does so, then Allah the Exalted will record it as ten good deeds up to seven hundred times as much or even more. If he intends to do a bad deed and does not do it, then Allah will record for him one complete good deed. If he does it then Allah will record for him a single bad deed. Source: Sahih Bukhari 6126, Grade: Muttafaqun Alayhi
SubhanAllah isn't that amazing? With this being the case, our good deeds, no matter how minor (saying salaams, being good to our parents, neighbors, family, praying salat, giving charity) racks up points like Super Mario when he is in the bonus round surrounded by coins or jumping and grabbing the flag at the end of a level. And this is outside of Ramadan!
And don't even get me started on the amount of good deeds you can rack up from just reading the Qur'an. You don't get 10 good deeds per word of Qur'an recited, you get 10 good deeds per letter!
Abdullah ibn Mas’ud reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Whoever recites a letter from the Book of Allah, he will receive one good deed as ten good deeds like it. I do not say that Alif Lam Mim is one letter, but rather Alif is a letter, Lam is a letter, and Mim is a letter.”
Source: Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2910
The Ramadan Bonus
During Ramadan, all good deeds are multiplied times 70. If you screw up during Ramadan and partake in some bad deeds, guess what? Your bad deeds during Ramadan are expiated via paying the Zakat Al Fitr. Why? Cuz...ALLAH WANTS US TO WIN!
On top of that, Laylatul Qadr (the Night of Power), the night better than 1000 months, gives us the reward of 82 years of worship (good deeds) that can make our good deeds multiplied to astronomical amounts that we probably can't even put a number on. ALLAH WANTS US TO WIN!
On top of that, if our fasting and worship are accepted during Ramadan, ALL OUR bad deeds are erased. And every year when Ramadan comes around we can basically blank out our bad deed book annually. It's absolutely ridiculous how the system is gamed for us to succeed and earn paradise. Why I ask again? ALLAH WANTS US TO WIN!
Allah Even Wants The Worst of Sinners To Win
Hey, we all sin. We were made that way; built to screw up. Anyone who says they don't is either not human or lying. Fortunately for us, Allah continues to shower us screw-ups with opportunities to redeem ourselves.
I'm sure everyone has heard of the story related in the hadith of the prostitute that gave water to a thirsty dog. She was forgiven for her misdeeds and given paradise from just this act. She was a prostitute for crying out loud, but still, Allah forgave her and rewarded her. Why? I know I sound like a broken record at this point but it's because ALLAH WANTS US TO WIN!
I'm sure everyone has heard of the story related in the hadith of the prostitute that gave water to a thirsty dog. She was forgiven for her misdeeds and given paradise from just this act. She was a prostitute for crying out loud, but still, Allah forgave her and rewarded her. Why? I know I sound like a broken record at this point but it's because ALLAH WANTS US TO WIN!
How about the story of the man who killed 99 men and wanted to see if he could ever be forgiven by Allah. He went to a learned scholar and told him he killed 99 men and asked if Allah would pardon him. The man, shocked, said that Allah wouldn't. Homeboy didn't like what he heard and killed him too, bringing his kill count to 100. Long story short, this man went to another learned person who said he would be pardoned by Allah if he sincerely repents and leaves the wretched town where he stayed to the town of good people.
He died on the journey and the angels of punishment and mercy debated over who would take his soul. There was an agreement that the spot where the man died be measured and whatever the man was closer to--the good town or the bad town, the angels would take him to his fate.
He was closer to the wretched town and Allah moved the earth so he was closer to the town of the good people. I relay this story as a reminder that no matter how bad our deeds are, we still have a chance for mercy and reward because ALLAH WANTS US TO WIN!
"This Is Like, So Not Fair" (Says Shaytan)
He probably spends a good majority of his time screaming and whining that this isn't fair. In fact, a story is relayed that when the following verse was revealed, Iblis cried.
And those who, when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves, remember God and ask forgiveness for their sins—and who forgives sins except God? And they do not persist in their wrongdoing while they know. (Holy Qur'an- Surah Alay Imran 3:135)
How Can We Lose?
If on the day of judgment your scale of bad deeds outweighs the good, you had to have screwed up in a royally bad way because everything that Allah has set forth has set us up for victory. This is a gigantic blessing that we should all be grateful for. Allah gives us opportunity after opportunity, chance on top of chance to be forgiven and to rack up those good deeds.
Just imagine you're an athlete. We've heard from many athletes that there's no better feeling than having an entire arena cheering and rooting for you to succeed. When you have a whole crowd behind you, you feel unstoppable and you don't want to let them down.
We ALL have Allah in that crowd, rooting for all of us to win. Isn't that something?
And Allah just happens to be our number 1 fan as well as the owner of the league and the rulemaker that tweaked all the rules so that we practically CAN'T LOSE unless we make an epic blunder.
I give you and myself this reminder to not screw this up and to most of all be grateful. Be grateful of Allah's generosity, His amazing leniency and his continued blessings that we did nothing to really deserve aside from being his prized creation.
In this test and trial of life, no matter how hard things get, if we stand firm, be patient and work hard, we got this! After all, ALLAH WANTS US TO WIN!
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