When you ask for NOTHING from other people, Allah gives you EVERYTHING!

 

Ever feel underappreciated? Ever feel that, despite the genuine effort we put to help, contribute, show kindness, or advise others, many of our efforts go unacknowledged and ignored? Even met with rejection, abuse or disrespect?

We may feel that perhaps it could be our friends, our bosses, our family members, perhaps even our own spouses who fail to recognize our contributions. 

In surah Al-Insan, Allah describes the righteous people (Al-Abrar), as those who spend, providing charity to feed the poor, the orphan and those in captivity, and openly proclaim:

إِنَّمَا نُطْعِمُكُمْ لِوَجْهِ اللَّـهِ لَا نُرِيدُ مِنْكُمْ جَزَاءً وَلَا شُكُورًا
"We feed you only seeking the Face of Allah. We do NOT wish from you ANY REWARD (Jaza) or APPRECIATION (shukoor)” (Al-Insan 76:9)

In the succeeding ayaat, Allah then describes how He then rewards them and grants them a life of Joy, with a vivid description of the pleasures and enjoyment He has prepared from them in Paradise – of silky garments, raised thrones, low hanging fruits, crystal-clear goblets to drink from, a beautiful spring of Salsabil, with boys of everlasting youth to serve us, beautiful as scattered pearls. All of these, on top of basically EVERYTHING and ANYTHING our hearts can ever desire, as described in other ayaat of the Qur’an.

Then finally in the same surah, Allah concludes:

إِنَّ هَٰذَا كَانَ لَكُمْ جَزَاءً وَكَانَ سَعْيُكُمْ مَشْكُورًا
"Verily, this is FOR YOU, as a REWARD (Jaza) and an APPRECIATION (of your efforts)." (76:22)

Observe these beautiful words in relationship to ayah number 9 above:
When you ask for no compensation or acknowledgement from people (#9), Allah HIMSELF will compensate you and acknowledge your efforts! (#22)

These ayaat should remind us and motivate us about ikhlas (sincerity) in our deeds. In life, no matter how much effort we put in for others, the reality is many of our efforts tend to go unappreciated by the people around us.

But for the Al-Abrar - the sincere people of ikhlas - here is the good news: We’re not doing it for them. We’re doing it for Allah.

And here is the AWESOME news: As long as we are doing it sincerely for Allah, EVERYTHING will be repaid in full, and none of it will be wasted!

إِنَّهُ مَنْ يَتَّقِ وَيَصْبِرْ فَإِنَّ اللَّـهَ لَا يُضِيعُ أَجْرَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
“Verily, those who have taqwa (consciousness of Allah) and are patient, then verily, Allah will never allow to be wasted, the reward of those who do good” (Surah Yusuf 12:90)

And if the reward comes from Allah, dude, the reward will be so much better than any human being can ever repay. Ten to seven hundred times multiplied in value – perhaps even more by His Will and His Grace, according to the hadith!

These divine words of Allah remind us to always reinforce our WHY in everything we do: why do we work? Why do we take care of our families? Why do we help others? Why do we make a choice to continue doing so, despite being unappreciated again and again and again?

So. Feel unappreciated?
As long as we are sincere, rest assured: ALLAH Appreciates.

#TheBarakahEffect #Ikhlas #sincerity #unappreciated #underappreciated