Do Good Sincerely for Allāh ﷻ

Bismi Llāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm

أَلَا لِلَّهِ الدِّينُ الْخَالِصُ

(Qur’ān 39:03)

“Ala li-Llahi d-Deenu l-Khaalisū”

“Unquestionably, for Allah is the pure religion.” Ṣadaqa Llāhu l-‘Aẓīm.

Ikhlas is sincerity towards Allāh ﷻ. When there is sincerity and it is purely for the sake of Allāh ﷻ, a person doesn’t care about anything else.

Everything you do should be for the sake of Allāh ﷻ. Your acts of worship are for His ﷻ sake. The good deeds are for His ﷻ sake. Doing good to people is for the sake of Allāh ﷻ.

You do good to people, and then you feel sad because they haven’t thanked you. You do good, but the other person is ungrateful. You feel deeply sad. This sadness means that the good you do isn’t for the sake of Allāh ﷻ, but for gratitude, so that they thank you.

This doesn’t work; this is not ikhlas, not sincerity. It is not for the sake of Allāh ﷻ. You are mixing it being for the sake of Allāh ﷻ with other things. And when you mix it up, it doesn’t become good. If not all of the benefit and reward of your deeds are lost, most of it is lost.

If it were for the pleasure of Allāh ﷻ, you would be at peace. “I did this for Allāh ﷻ. I did it for the sake of Allāh ﷻ. Whether they thank me, appreciate me, are ungrateful, or don’t do anything, that’s not important. What matters is that I did this for the sake of Allāh ﷻ, pure and sincere for the sake of Allāh ﷻ.”

Then, you won’t look back. You won’t think, “What happened? What did they say? Will it benefit me in the future? Will that person whom I’ve helped help me? Will people thank me? Will they be grateful?”

You won’t wait for that. Or else, it wouldn’t be for the sake of Allāh ﷻ, but for the benefit of the people, for something else. That’s why, you would be mixing it. You’re polluting something that’s pure inside.

Therefore, those who do it for the sake of Allāh ﷻ will be at ease. They don’t expect anything from anyone. What they expect, they do what they did and send it to the hereafter. There’s no need to spoil it.

As the saying goes, “Do good and throw it into the sea. If the fish doesn’t know, the Creator knows.” The Creator knows, that is, Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla. What will the fish know? Humans are like the fish. You shouldn’t have to think about which fish you catch, if it will thank you, who ate which and who didn’t.

Similarly, let the good deeds you do be for the sake of Allāh ﷻ.

May Allāh ﷻ not let us follow our egos. Because mankind desires so, his ego desires to see the return for what he has done. Even if this return was a ‘thank you’, they want it. They can thank you or not. But of course, when thanking someone for the sake of Allāh ﷻ, they are thanking Allāh ﷻ.

If they haven’t, then they didn’t thank Him ﷻ. That’s not important. What’s important is that it be for the sake of Allāh ﷻ, and it should be sincerely and purely for Him ﷻ, in shā’a Llāh.

Wa min Allah at-Tawfiq.

Al-Fatiha.

•⁠ ⁠Mawlana Sheikh Muhammad Adil ar-Rabbaniق

23 November 2025/ 02 Jumada Al-Thani 1447

Fajr Prayer – Akbaba Dergah, Istanbul

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