(95–97) “Do not sell Allah’s covenant for a paltry price. What is with Allah is better for you, if only you knew. What you have will come to an end, but what is with Allah will endure. We will surely reward those who patiently persevere according to the best of what they used to do. Whoever does righteous deeds, whether male or female, while being a believer, We will surely grant them a good life, and We will surely reward them according to the best of what they used to do.”
Allah Most High warns His servants against breaking covenants and oaths for the sake of the fleeting goods and worthless trappings of this world. He says: “Do not sell Allah’s covenant for a paltry price,” which you would obtain by breaking it and failing to honor it. “What is with Allah”—the immediate and future reward for whoever gives preference to His pleasure and faithfully fulfills the covenant made with Him—“is better for you” than the transient trappings of this world, “if only you knew.”
Therefore, give preference to what endures over what perishes. No matter how abundant what you possess may be, it must “come to an end” and perish, whereas “what is with Allah will endure” by virtue of His everlastingness; it neither perishes nor passes away. No rational person would prefer what is base and perishing to what is precious and enduring. This is like His saying:
“But you prefer the life of this world, while the Hereafter is better and more lasting.”
And:
“What is with Allah is better for the righteous.”
This passage encourages and urges detachment from this world, especially obligatory detachment: abstaining from anything that harms the servant, causes him to neglect what Allah has made obligatory for him, and leads him to give it ⦗449⦘ precedence over Allah’s right. Such detachment is obligatory.
One incentive to such detachment is for the servant to compare this world’s pleasures and desires with the blessings of the Hereafter. He will find such disparity between them that it prompts him to choose the higher of the two. Praiseworthy detachment does not mean withdrawing to devote oneself to acts of worship whose benefit is confined to oneself, such as prayer, fasting, remembrance, and the like. Rather, a servant does not attain genuine detachment until he carries out, to the extent of his ability, the outward and inward commands of the Sacred Law, as well as calling others to Allah and His religion in word and deed. True detachment means shunning whatever is of no benefit to one’s religion or worldly life, while desiring and striving for everything beneficial.
“We will surely reward those who patiently persevere” in obeying Allah and refraining from disobeying Him, and who wean themselves from worldly desires that harm their religion, “according to the best of what they used to do.” A good deed is rewarded tenfold, up to seven hundredfold and many times beyond that, for Allah does not allow the reward of anyone who does good to be lost.
For this reason, He then mentions the reward of those who do good, both in this world and in the Hereafter, saying: “Whoever does righteous deeds, whether male or female, while being a believer.” Faith is a condition for righteous deeds to be valid and accepted. Indeed, without faith they cannot even be called righteous deeds. Faith itself entails such deeds, for it is firm conviction that bears fruit in actions of the limbs, whether obligatory or recommended.
Whoever combines faith with righteous deeds, “We will surely grant them a good life.” This consists of tranquility in the heart, serenity of the soul, and paying no heed to whatever might trouble the heart. Allah also grants such a person lawful, wholesome provision from where they least expect it. “And We will surely reward them” in the Hereafter “according to the best of what they used to do,” with all manner of delights that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and that have never occurred to any human heart. Thus Allah grants such a person good in this world and good in the Hereafter.