Are permissible deeds recorded in the books?
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Are permissible deeds and words placed in the scale of a servant's good deeds or in the scale of his bad deeds? And are there words and deeds for which a person is neither rewarded nor punished?
We spoke a moment ago about justice. If a deed is neither commanded nor prohibited, and a person does it, what is justice? He is neither rewarded nor punished. For this reason, the scholars have agreed, based on what the Book and the Sunnah indicate, that there is a category in the Islamic Shari'ah called the halal or the permissible, in which there is no reward and no punishment, unless it is a means to something required by the Shari'ah, in which case there is reward, or a means to something forbidden, in which case there is punishment.Therefore, if someone were to say to us: What do you say about buying water for prayer?We said: Is there a reward in it or not? There is a reward. If someone were to buy a weapon to fight the Muslims with, is there sin in it or not? There is sin, even though the original act of buying and selling is halal.
The questioner: But what about the saying of some of the Salaf, O Shaykh: "I reckon my sleep and my waking with Allah"? The Shaykh: Because he intends by the sleep to seek help for obedience, and by the waking to do righteous deeds and call to Allah, and the like of that.
We spoke a moment ago about justice. If a deed is neither commanded nor prohibited, and a person does it, what is justice? He is neither rewarded nor punished. For this reason, the scholars have agreed, based on what the Book and the Sunnah indicate, that there is a category in the Islamic Shari'ah called the halal or the permissible, in which there is no reward and no punishment, unless it is a means to something required by the Shari'ah, in which case there is reward, or a means to something forbidden, in which case there is punishment.Therefore, if someone were to say to us: What do you say about buying water for prayer?We said: Is there a reward in it or not? There is a reward. If someone were to buy a weapon to fight the Muslims with, is there sin in it or not? There is sin, even though the original act of buying and selling is halal.
The questioner: But what about the saying of some of the Salaf, O Shaykh: "I reckon my sleep and my waking with Allah"? The Shaykh: Because he intends by the sleep to seek help for obedience, and by the waking to do righteous deeds and call to Allah, and the like of that.