Allah. Rather, all of them are positive realities. Everything that exists or comes into being is brought into being by Allah.

This is because good deeds consist either in performing what is commanded or in refraining from what is forbidden. Refraining is itself a positive reality. A person’s refraining from what he has been forbidden, his knowledge that it is an evil sin and a cause of punishment, his hatred and aversion toward it, and his restraining himself from it when his soul desires, craves, and seeks it—all these are positive realities. Likewise, his knowledge that good deeds—such as justice and truthfulness—are good, and his performance of them, are positive realities.

Thus, a person is rewarded for performing good deeds only when he does them out of love for them, deliberately intending thereby to seek the Face of his Lord and to obey Allah and His Messenger. He is rewarded for refraining from evil deeds when he abandons them out of aversion to them and restrains himself from them. Allah Most High says:

“But Allah has endeared faith to you and made it beautiful in your hearts, and has made disbelief, wickedness, and disobedience hateful to you. Those are the rightly guided.”

Allah Most High also says:

“But as for him who feared standing before his Lord and restrained his soul from desire,”

“Paradise will indeed be his refuge.”

And Allah Most High says:

“Indeed, prayer restrains one from indecency and wrongdoing.”

In the two Sahīh collections, Anas reports that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: “Whoever possesses three qualities will taste the sweetness of faith: that Allah and His Messenger are dearer to him than all else; that he loves a person only for Allah’s sake; and that he would hate