Exegesis of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “Whoever does an evil deed will not be recompensed except its like, and whoever does a good deed, whether male or female, while he is a believer, then those will enter Paradise and be provided for therein without account.”

Then he said: This is like an explanation of the state of the Hereafter and how people will be recompensed therein. He said: And his saying: “like” is the second object of “recompensed,” and the first object is the hidden subject substitute. He says: An evil deed is that which causes distress in the present state or in the ultimate outcome. So whatever befalls a person of illness, poverty, or disability, or the like of that, is distress, but it is in the present state. And whatever befalls a person of punishment for his deeds is distress, but it is in the ultimate outcome. It may be in the present state, where a person is hastened with punishment. So an evil deed is everything that causes distress in the present state or in the ultimate outcome. Good.
An evil deed is [recompensed] with one [evil deed], no matter what it is, even if the person is in Makkah or in al-Madinah or in the mosque or in any place, or in any time as well, even if it is in the sacred months in which Allah the Exalted specified the prohibition of oppression, saying: So the evil deed is not increased, but know that it may be more severe in terms of quality, not in terms of quantity. That is, we see that one blow may be more severe for a person than ten blows because of its intensity and the severity of its impact. For this reason, Allah the Exalted said regarding the Makkah sanctuary: .
And with this report indicated by the Book and the Sunnah, it becomes clear that what is mentioned about Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him and him) that he left Makkah and said, “I will not remain in a land where its evil deeds and its good deeds are equal,” is not authentic from Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him). And Ibn Abbas is more knowledgeable and more learned than for this matter to be confused upon him, even though Allah said in Surat al-An'am, which is a Makkian surah: [al-An'am: 160]
He said: “Whoever” is a conditional particle, and “goodly” can be parsed as an attribute for a described noun that is omitted, with the meaning: he did a good deed. And it is permissible to make it an absolute object, because the description of the omitted source noun can be parsed as an absolute object or as an attribute for a described noun that is omitted, with the meaning: a good deed.
So what is the good deed? The good deed is that in which the conditions of acceptance are present, and that is by it being sincere for Allah and in accordance with the Shari'ah of Allah. That is, it combines two things:
Sincerity for Allah and following His messengers (peace and blessings be upon them). This is the good deed. So it is that in which the conditions of acceptance are present, which are sincerity for Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and the second is following the messengers of Allah, whether Muhammad or others. But it is known that after the sending of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), following anyone else is not valid. Good.
So if sincerity is absent, the deed is not good, but rather it is returned to its doer, by His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He) in the Qudsi Hadith: .
And if following is absent, the deed is not good and it is returned, by the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): .
And his saying: is an explanation of “whoever,” so “whoever” here is explanatory. How do we say it is an explanation of “whoever”? Because is a relative pronoun, and the original state of a relative pronoun is ambiguity. So if an explanation is found after it, it clarifies its ambiguity.
This condition requires that he be a believer. If he is not a believer, then his good deed will not benefit him, even if the deed is of a kind whose benefit extends to others, it will not benefit him, by His saying the Exalted: So the non-believer is not benefited by his deed. If a disbeliever man repaired the roads, laid water pipes to water people, built mosques, printed books, clothed the naked, and fed the hungry, would this benefit him? No. For this reason, the deeds of the hypocrites do not benefit them because they are not believers. And by this we know that faith is the foundation: believe, then work.