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Is it true that God treats a servant as the servant treats people?

2 min readAlso available in العربية

Ibn al-Qayyim says that Allah is One and loves odd numbers, Merciful and loves those who show mercy, Concealer of faults and loves those who conceal the faults of His servants, Pardoner and loves those who pardon others, Forgiver and loves those who forgive, Subtle and loves the subtle among His servants, Gentle and loves gentleness, Clement and loves clemency, Righteous and loves righteousness and its people, Just and loves justice, and Acceptor of excuses and loves those who accept the excuses of His servants. Allah recompenses a servant according to how that servant treats His other servants. So, whoever pardons will be pardoned, whoever forgives will be forgiven, whoever shows leniency will be shown leniency, whoever is gentle with His servants will be treated gently by Him, whoever shows them mercy will be shown mercy by Him, whoever does good to them will have good done to him, whoever is generous to them will have generosity shown to him, whoever benefits them will be benefited, whoever conceals their faults will have his faults concealed, whoever overlooks their mistakes will have his mistakes overlooked, whoever withholds his goodness from them will have goodness withheld from him, whoever causes hardship will have hardship caused to him by Allah, whoever schemes will be schemed against, and whoever deceives will be deceived. Thus, Allah Almighty treats the servant according to the servant's treatment of His creation.

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever conceals [the fault of] a Muslim, Allah will conceal his [fault] in this world and the Hereafter. Whoever relieves a believer of a distress from the distresses of this world, Allah will relieve him of a distress from the distresses of the Day of Resurrection. And whoever makes things easy for one who is in difficulty, Allah will make his reckoning easy." He also said: "Whoever gives respite to one in difficulty or waives his debt, Allah will shade him in His shade." He also said: "Do not harm Muslims, and do not seek out their faults, for whoever seeks out the fault of his brother, Allah will seek out his fault, and whoever has Allah seeking out his fault, He will expose him even if he is in the innermost part of his house." As you judge, so shall you be judged. Whoever treats His creation with a certain attribute, Allah Almighty will treat him with that very same attribute in this world and the Hereafter.

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

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