Hadeeth of the Week

[Bimzoori]

As I promised earlier, I would be posting a hadeeth every week, from which we can strart our discussions, and try to share together any stories, thoughts, reflections related to the Hadeeth..
Last time, very few people participated, I hope we can get more this time :)

:)Click here for the first Hadeeth I posted:) (http://www.englishsabla.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=6253)


The Hadeeth for this week:

On the authority of son of Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), from the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), among the sayings he related from his Lord (glorified and exalted be He) is that He said:

Allah has written down the good deeds and the bad ones. Then He explained it [by saying that] he who has intended a good deed and has not done it, Allah writes it down with Himself as a full good deed, but if he has intended it and has done it, Allah writes it down with Himself as from ten good deeds to seven hundred times, or many times over. But if he has intended a bad deed and has not done it, Allah writes it down with Himself as a full good deed, but if he has intended it and has done it, Allah writes it down as one bad deed.

From Saheeh Bukhari and Muslim

[MoonChild]

If I'm reading this correctly, good intentions not done "count" 1, and bad intentions not done count for as much as a good intention not done.

So your thoughts all count as good deeds whether they are good thoughts or evil thoughts. A bad deed counts "one against you", but a good deed so far outweighs all the others (10-70 times), that you can do an awful lot of bad stuff and make up for it with just one good deed, in the eyes of Allah.

Just as a point of contrast, Jesus taught that thinking evil thoughts is as bad as doing evil deeds, and thinking of good intentions without actually doing them is worth nothing. In fact, we have a saying in English "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions".

On the face of it, it's much harder to be a good Christian than a good Muslim, because Muslims get points for inactivity, and LOADS of points for each good deed (one good deed can cancel out 70 bad ones), whereas Christians only get one point per good deed and demerits for bad thoughts, bad deeds, and good thoughts not acted on!

Then again, Christians don't actually have to be good to enter Heaven, they just have to Believe and be really sorry if they got a bad score. So maybe it evens out :)

Personally, I don't think of Life as a big basketball game, but it's interesting to note the differences between religions.

[Arabian Princess]

MoonChild,
well maybe u did not understand the logic of this well.
If I thought .. ohh one day I wanna hurt that person, my mind will be set to hurt that perosn and then I come back to my self and decied it is not a good thing to hurt that person it is counted that I was good enough not to do that bad action!!

The logic of good intention being counted is that sometimes I am willing to help a poor person for example, but then I ran out of money because I had to pay extra bills .. the intention that I thought of was good enough to be rewarded for!

Islam does not encurage inactivity, in fact it discourage it but making it less apealabe to think of something and then not do it. Plus, we beleive ALlah knows what is in your thought .. so you cant fool him by making your self think that you think in such a way! if you really meant inside your heart to do that good deed but the situations around you did not help you then it is not your fault it was your fate and Allah will reward you for being good even if you did not act it out!

[MoonChild]

PERSONALLY I think that a person should get credit for "resisting temptation" as it were, although they should get MORE credit for not being tempted in the first place.

ie it's much better to not want to hurt someone, than to want to, but not do it.

As far as good intentions - I've got some cans of food in my cupboard I should donate to the hungry. Somehow, I never get around to it. I haven't actually helped anyone, so why should I get any points towards Heaven?

As you say, Allah will know if I was really prevented from acting on my good intentions, or if I was just too lazy...

But none of that really matters, unless someone wants to start a religion after me - and even Sun wouldn't promote me to more than President ;)

My point is that it's soooo easy to say "this hadeeth means what I think it should", rather than "this is what the hadeeth actually says". I'm completely naive in the ways of Islam so I read what it actually says. It's reasonable to come back with commentary on the symbolism of the 10-70 times bit - after all in Wicca we don't actually believe the 3-fold law to the extent that if you give away a dollar you will get $3 in return... just that good deeds will be rewarded somehow...

[Arabian Princess]

MoonChild,
it really matters if you actually did the act or not and tihs is why the no. of deed that is counted for you are differnt (if u did the act or not)

I did not really understand your concern, can you please make it more clear to me.

[ALhaq]

this is AL-Shatiri's recitation



http://media.islamway.com/arabic/im.../shatry/021.ram

[Arabian Princess]

Alhaq, we would have been please if you were able to add something related to this topic.
I love ALshatri's recitation but I beleive it would have gotten more attention if it had its own topic.
Thanx
Back to the topic, waiting for your reply moonchild.

[MoonChild]

Originally posted by Arabian Princess
waiting for your reply moonchild.

Sorry for the delay, I was busy enjoying my birthday and all the great food Wanderer made for me :)

"Concern" is too strong a word, I just read the hadeeth that
Bimzoori posted and wanted to see if I understood it correctly. The concepts contained in it are somewhat different than what is taught in Christianity, and I was both making sure I "get it" and pointing out the differences.
I find comparative religion interesting.

I'm not judging the hadeeth as "wrong" or "right" (how could I? It's a matter of belief, and we won't know if it's right until we die and see for ourselves). I was just asking if I understood.