Great Rewards for Small Deeds: Why?

08 June, 2016
Q As-Salamu alaykum. There are some hadiths that promise very big rewards for very small deeds, such as getting the reward of reading one-third of the Quran by merely reading Surat Al-Ikhlas. First, I thought those hadiths were no more than fabricated exaggerations but I found out that they are indeed authentic hadiths. I wonder then why all those rewards for such small deeds?

Answer

Wa `alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Dear questioner, we would like to thank you for the great confidence you place in us.

Regarding your question, I would like to emphasize that Allah is the most merciful and His generosity is limitless. So, I think it is better to busy oneself with seizing these generous offers and accumulating as many of hasanat as possible rather than spending much time thinking why such huge hasanat are assigned to theses deeds.

However that does not mean reflecting on this question is blameworthy. The point is that it should not distract us from benefiting from the blessings that Allah granted us in the form of highly rewarding small acts.

I believe that one way to understand the reason behind such great rewards is reflecting on the characteristics of people who are keen on seizing these opportunities:

– They have great trust in what Allah and the Prophet say and therefore they keep doing these deeds.

– They aspire to maximize their hasanat and therefore they are looking for the best ways to reach this goal.

– They are always alert; they never allow temptations to distract them from accumulating hasant.

– They prefer the Hereafter to this world and therefore they are ready to sacrifice some conveniences of this world to secure themselves in the Hereafter.

To appreciate these qualities, let’s ask ourselves how many of us try to seize these opportunities (for example, pray Fajr in the mosque and stay there until Duha time and pray Duha to get the reward of perfect Hajj and `Umrah as we are told by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).

How many of us reduce his/her time on Facebook to repeat some Dhikr or to pray few rak`ahs .

Many of us know that reading Surat Al-Ikhlas gains its reader a reward equal to reading one third of the Qur’an, how many of us are keen on not missing this high reward.

Compare our attitude to these special offers with our excessive interest in worldly offers, market sales, and promotions.

Indeed, those small deeds betray the magnitude of our iman (faith) and devotion and perhaps this is why their reward is such huge.