God Al-Mighty is not only, as some falsely believe a God of punishment. In fact He is merciful and His purpose was not to create us and punish us. Allah is so merciful that for our good deed He gives us ten times the reward for that deed.

Allah says in the Holy Quran, “Whoever brings a good deed, he shall be rewarded ten like it and whoever brings an evil deed he shall be recompensed only with the like of it and they shall not be dealt with unjustly” (6:160). He also says, “The parable of those who spend their property in the way of Allah is as the parable of a grain growing seven ears (with) a hundred grains in every ear; and Allah multiplies for whom he pleases; and Allah is ample-giving, knowing” (2:261)

Thus the rewards are awaiting us, and it is our duty to perform those deeds so that we receive them from our Lord who is ample-giving. Below are some examples of the great rewards and benefits awaiting us. These are just a few chosen narrations from many, but nevertheless, they show the mercifulness and the generosity of Allah.

1. READING THE QURAN: (Imam Ali said, “ The likeness of the believer who recites the Quran is that of a citrus fruit which has a sweet scent and a sweet taste)

I) The Prophet said to Salman al-Farsi; “O’Salman read the Quran because reading it is an atonement for sins, and a shield from hellfire and exemption from punishment. Whoever reads it receives for every verse (ayah) rewards equivalent to that given to one hundred martyrs and for every chapter read he receives rewards equivalent to that given to the children of Israel (bani Israel). He will be engulfed by mercy and the angels will on his behalf ask for forgiveness. Heaven will be yearning for him and the Master (Allah) will be satisfied with him.

When he has finished reading the whole book the rewards that will be bestowed upon him will be equivalent to that given to 313 prophets who had delivered the Lord’s message. And it will be as if he had read every book sent to His Prophets. His body will be prohibited from hellfire and by the time he moves from his sitting position, Allah will have granted forgiveness for both he and his parents.

O’Salman, if a believer reads the holy Quran, Allah will for every letter he utters create an angel that will on his behalf glorify Allah till the Day of Judgement. And there is nothing Allah likes more after the seekers of knowledge, more than the reading of the Quran. The most honored subjects before Allah, after the Prophets, are the scholars followed by those who know the Quran by heart. They will depart from this world as the Prophet did and when they exit their graves, they do so with the Prophets. They then walk on the ‘straight path’ (sira’at) with the Prophets and receive the same rewards given to the Prophets.

So blessed is the seeker of knowledge and the memorizer of the Quran because of the honour and dignity that he holds before Allah”.

II) Imam Musa al-Khadhim said, “The degrees of ranks in Paradise are equal to the number of verses of the Holy Quran. So for every verse you read you will be raised a degree higher”.

2. LISTENING TO THE QURAN: (And when the Quran is recited, then listen to it and remain silent, that mercy may be shown to you.-7:204)

I) Imam al-Sadiq said, “One who listens to the Holy Quran being read, for every letter Allah will give him the reward of one good deed, and Allah deletes one of his bad deeds and raises him one degree higher”.

II) Imam Ali said, “to listen to a verse from the Quran is more beneficial to a person than a mountain of gold”.

3. LEARNING THE QURAN: (Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created, 96:1)

I) The Prophet said, “ Learn the Quran and learn its commands and restrictions. The Quran was sent down based on five facets; the lawful, the prohibited, the coherent, the ambiguous and the parables. So execute its lawful commands and leave that which it has prohibited. Also do by the coherent commands and leave the ambiguous ones. And learn a lesson from the parables”.

II) The Prophet said, “The best amongst you is he who learns the Quran and teaches it”.

III) The Prophet said, “If one teaches his child the Quran it will be as if he had done the pilgrimage 10,000 times; the small pilgrimage (umrah) 10,000 times; freed 10,000 slaves from the children of Ismael; fought 10,000 holy wars; fed 10,000 poor and hungry Muslims; clothed 10,000 needy Muslims. And he will receive for every letter the rewards for ten good deeds and ten of his bad deeds will be deleted. The Quran will remain with him in his grave till he is resurrected, and it will weigh heavily on the scale (of deeds), and with it (the Quran) one will cross the straight path (sir’at) like a strike of lightning and it will not part from him until he has received the great honour that he wished for.”

4. SPECIFIC CHAPTERS: (By the Quran, full of Wisdom,-36.2)

I) The prophet said to Jabir al-Ansari, “O’Jabir do you want me to teach you the most superior chapter revealed by Allah in the Quran”. Jabir replied, “Yes, may my mother and father be a sacrifice for you”. The Prophet taught him the Opening Chapter (Hamd) then said to him, “Jabir shall I tell you about it”. “Yes”, Jabir replied. The Prophet then said, “it is a cure for every ailment except death”.

II) The Prophet said, “whoever reads the Opening Chapter (Hamd) will be given rewards equivalent to giving alms to every believer”.

III) Imam Jaafar al-Sadiq said, “The Chapter of An’am was revealed as one whole chapter and did not come down in verses. When it descended on Prophet Mohammed, 70,000 angels brought it down. So revere and exalt it, because the Name of Allah, the Most exalted appears in it seventy times. If the people knew of the benefits attained from reading it, they would not have left it”.

IV) Ibn Abbas said, “Whoever reads chapter of An’am every night shall be one of those safeguarded on the Day of Judgement and he will not even see the fires of hell”.

V) The Prophet said, “Everything has a heart and the heart of the Quran is Chapter Ya’seen, so whoever reads it once will receive rewards equivalent to that of reading the Quran ten times”.

VI) Anas said, “We were with the Prophet at Tabook, when we saw the sun rise but the light that emanated from it was not like anything we’ve seen before. The Prophet was looking at it with amazement when suddenly Jibrael came to him. He asked about the sun’s extra-ordinary brightness.

Jibrael said to him, “Muawiya bin Muawiya al-Laythee died in Madina today, so Allah has sent down 70,000 angels to pray on his body. The Prophet said, “Why is that”. Jibrael said, “because he was continuously reading chapter of Ikhlas whilst standing, sitting walking and at all hours of the day and night. Whoever reads this chapter fifty times Allah will raise him 50,000 degrees and will delete 50,000 of his bad deeds and will give him rewards equivalent to that of 50,000 good deeds, and if one wishes to increase on that, then Allah too, will increase (his rewards)

5. SUPPLICATION: (And remember your Lord within yourself with humility and in reverence and in a voice not loud in the mornings and evenings and be not of the heedless ones, 7:205)

I) Imam al-Sadiq said, “supplication reverses ones pre-empted destiny. So maximize your sayings of supplication because it is the key to every mercy (rahma) and it is prosperity for every necessity. And you will not achieve that which is with Allah except through supplications, for there is not a door that one constantly knocks on that is not on the verge of opening”.

II) The Prophet said, “The most preferred form of worship after reading the Quran is supplication”. He then said, “And your Lord says: ‘Call on Me; I will answer your (prayer): But those who are too arrogant to serve Me will surely find themselves in Hell – in humiliation! 40:60) Do you not see that supplication is worship?”

III) The Prophet said, “Every Muslim that invokes Allah through supplication will have his prayers answered. It will either be answered quickly in this world, or Allah may reserve the answer to his prayers for the Day of Judgment, or it (the Du’a) may be an atonement for some sin”

IV) Imam al-Sadiq said, “When Allah is judging the believer on the Day of Judgement he says to the believer being judged, ‘Do you know this credit accounted to you? The believer says, ‘No, My Lord!’ Allah then says, ‘you invoked me on such and such a night about such and such a matter, and I reserved it till today’. The believer after seeing the grand reward Allah has treasured for him says, ‘O’Lord I wish that you had not answered any of my prayers in the world but rather treasured them for me, for this day’”.

6. BLESSINGS OF ALLAH ON MOHAMMAD AND HIS HOLY PROGENY (SALAWAT), (God and His angels send blessings on the Prophet; O’you who believe send your blessings on him and salute him with a worthy salutation, 33:56)

I) Imam al-Sadiq said, “whoever cannot find anything which can atone for his sins then he should say often, ‘O’Allah bless Mohammed and the progeny of Mohammed”, for saying it obliterates sins”.

II) The Prophet said, “Jibrael came to me and said: ‘O’Mohammed for every person that says blessing for you there will be 70,000 angels saying blessings for him. And he that has angels saying blessings for him will surely be in paradise’”.

III) The Prophet said, “Say many blessings for me because saying it means illumination in the grave and illumination in paradise”.

IV) Imam al-Sadiq said, “if the name of the Prophet is mentioned then increase the saying of blessings on him. For whoever says blessing for the Prophet once, Allah will say blessings for him 1000 times in one thousand rows of angels. And all of Allah’s creations will say blessing for him because Allah and his angels had said blessings. Whoever does not desire this is ignorant and arrogant. Allah, is Prophet and the Holy family disassociate themselves from him”.

7. PRAYING: (And this is a book we have revealed, blessed, verifying that which is before it, and that you may warn the metropolis and those around her and those who believe in the hereafter believe in it and they attempt to their prayers constantly, 6:92)

I) Ibn Othman says, “we were with Salman al-Farsi sitting under a tree, when suddenly Salman took hold of one branch and shook it until its leaves were shed. He then said, ‘Are you not going to ask me about what I have done’. We said, ‘tell us’.

Salman said, ‘we were once with the Prophet sitting in the shade of a tree, when he took hold of a branch and shook it until all its leaves were shed, then said to us, ‘are you not going to ask me about my actions?’ We said, ‘Tell us O’ Messenger of Allah’. He said, ‘when the believer gets up to pray, his sins will drop off in the same manner that the leaves dropped off this branch’”.

II) Prophet Moses said, “My Lord what reward is there for one who prays?” Allah said to him, “O’Moses, I will flaunt (ubahi) him to my angels whilst he is kneeling, prostrating, standing and sitting. And he whom I flaunt to my angels will not be punished by me”.

III) Isaac bin Ammar asked Imam al-Sadiq about the best time for the Morning Prayer. The Imam said, “When dawn first sets in because at that time your prayers are witnessed by the angels of the night and the angels of the day. So if a believer prays his Morning Prayer that time he will be rewarded for it twice, once by the night angels and once by the morning angels”.

IV) The Prophet said, about Allah’s words ‘Keep up prayer from the declining of the sun till the darkness of the night and the morning recitation; surely the morning recitation is witnessed’ (17:78). “This is the time that Allah orders the fires of hell be flared on the day of judgement, so any believer who is fortunate enough to be at that hour either kneeling, prostrating or standing in prayers, Allah will forbid his body from entering hellfire”.

V) The Prophet said, “In the grave there is an eerie darkness and on the day of judgement there is also an eerie darkness. So Allah ordered my people to pray the evening prayers in order that their graves become illuminated and so that He can grant me and my people brightness on the straight path (sir’at). And whoever prays it Allah will forbid his body from entering hell”

8. NIGHT PRAYERS:

I) The Prophet said, “any believer, male or female that rises at night to pray sincerely for Allah, does his ablution then stands humbly in prayers with genuine intentions and a good heart and tearful eyes, Allah will send angels to pray behind him in nine rows. Allah, the exalted will only know the count of each row of angels, because one end of the row is in the east and the other in the west. And when he finishes praying Allah will for each angel present, write down the rewards equivalent to that of a good deed”.

II) Imam al-Sadiq said, “a house that has someone performing night prayers in it, illuminates the skies for the dwellers of the heavens in the same way as the stars illuminate the land for the dwellers of the earth”.

III) The Prophet said, “Night prayers satisfy the Lord, and it is the love of angels and the customary habit of the Prophets. It is foundation for faith and tranquility for the body and is the abhorrence of Satan. It is a weapon against the enemy. Night prayers are an assurance for the answering of supplications (du’a) and the acceptance of deeds and the blessing of our subsistence. Night prayers act as an interceder between he who prayed it and the angel of death. It transforms into a light in the dark grave and answers the questions of the angels of the grave (munkar and nakeer). It remains as a source of comfort in ones grave until the day of judgement”.