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How sound is the saying: "If Allah intends good for His servant, He deprives him of seeing his good deeds from his heart and speaking of them with his tongue, and preoccupies him with seeing his sins, which remain before his eyes until he enters Paradise"?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

In his book "Tariq al-Hijratayn" (The Path of the Two Migrations), Ibn al-Qayyim summarizes Allah's wisdom in ordaining sin for a servant: if Allah wills good for a servant, He makes them forget to see their obedience and busies them with seeing their sin. The servant who commits a sin keeps it before their eyes, so they regret it, supplicate, hasten to efface it, and humble themselves before their Lord. Thus, Allah admits them to Paradise by His mercy, not because of their sin, but because they feared and dreaded Him in this world. This is also reflected in the Prophet's (peace be upon him) saying: "By My might, I shall not combine for My servant two securities nor two fears: if he feels secure from Me in this world, I will make him fear on the Day I gather My servants; and if he fears Me in this world, I will secure him on the Day I gather My servants." The sin was ordained for Omar bin Abdul Aziz due to his striking of Khubayb bin Abdullah bin al-Zubayr. He then regretted, feared, and humbled himself, which prompted him to strive in worship, piety, and justice. Much good came to him because of this slip.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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