When does a Person’s Good Deeds Benefit Him ?
عَنْ عَائِشَةَ قَالَتْ قُلْتُ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ابْنُ جُدْعَانَ كَانَ فِى الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ يَصِلُ الرَّحِمَ وَيُطْعِمُ الْمِسْكِينَ فَهَلْ ذَاكَ نَافِعُهُ قَالَ « لاَ يَنْفَعُهُ إِنَّهُ لَمْ يَقُلْ يَوْمًا رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِى خَطِيئَتِى يَوْمَ الدِّينِ
Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) asked, “O messenger of Allah, Ibn Jud’an used to maintain goods ties with his kin and feed the poor in Jahiliyah. Would any of those actions benefit him?” He (sallahu alayhi wa salim) said: “It won’t benefit him. He did not say: “ O my Lord, forgive me my sins on the Day if Requital” ,a single day.”
Collected by Muslim (540)
Benefits for this Topic:
Shaykh Al-Albani (may Allah have mercy on him) said, “ This hadeeth is clear proof that if a disbeliever becomes Muslim his previous deeds he did before becoming Muslim benefit him. Although, when he dies as a disbeliever none of those (good) deeds will benefit him. On the contrary, his death as a Kafir invalidates those actions.
What’s more, in this hadeeth is evidence that those people who died in Jahiliyah before Muhammad came aren’t among the people who the call of Tawheed didn’t reach. If that wasn’t the case, Ibn Jud’an wouldn’t be punished (on the Day of Judgment).
Taken from the Silsilah (249)
Translated by Abu Aaliyah Abdullah ibn Dwight Lamont Battle
Doha,Qatar 1432©
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