(33) “O you who believe, obey Allah and obey the Messenger, and do not invalidate your deeds.”

The Exalted commands the believers to do that by which their affairs are set aright and their well-being in religion and worldly life is secured: to obey Him and His Messenger in both the fundamentals and subsidiary matters of religion. Obedience means complying with commands and avoiding prohibitions in the prescribed manner, with sincerity and complete adherence.

His words, “and do not invalidate your deeds,” include the prohibition against invalidating deeds after performing them through anything that corrupts them, such as reminding others of one’s favors, self-admiration, boasting, seeking renown, and committing sins that cause deeds to fade away and their reward to be lost. They also include the prohibition against spoiling deeds while performing them, whether by abandoning them before completion or by committing one of the acts that invalidates them.

Thus, everything that invalidates prayer, fasting, Hajj, and similar acts falls under this prohibition. Jurists cite this verse as evidence that it is forbidden to discontinue an obligatory act of worship and disliked to discontinue ⦗790⦘ a voluntary one without a valid reason. Since Allah has forbidden invalidating deeds, this constitutes a command to rectify, complete, and perfect them, and to perform them in the manner that makes them sound in both knowledge and practice.