Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa'l-Ḥikam 10: ‹Allah Is Good and Accepts Only What Is Good›

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on June 27, 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

Our ḥadīth today is the tenth ḥadīth in the book “Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Ḥikam,” and its text, as it came on the authority of Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: «إنَّ اللهَ طيِّبٌ لا يقبلُ إلا طيِّبًا، وإنَّ اللهَ أمَرَ المؤمنين بما أمَرَ به المرسَلين، فقال: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الرُّسُلُ كُلُوا مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَاعْمَلُوا صَالِحًا﴾، وقال تعالى: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُلُوا مِنْ طَيِّبَاتِ مَا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ﴾، ثم ذكر الرجلَ يُطيل السفرَ أشعثَ أغبرَ، يمدُّ يديه إلى السماء: يا رب يا رب، ومطعمُه حرام، ومشربُه حرام، وملبسُه حرام، وغُذِّي بالحرام، فأنّى يُستجاب لذلك؟»^[1]

(“Allah is good and accepts only what is good. Allah has commanded the believers with what He commanded the messengers, saying: ‘O messengers, eat of the good things and do righteous deeds,’ and the Exalted said: ‘O you who believe, eat of the good things We have provided for you.’ Then he mentioned the man who travels at length, disheveled and dusty, stretching out his hands to the sky: ‘O Lord, O Lord,’ while his food is unlawful, his drink is unlawful, his clothing is unlawful, and he has been nourished on the unlawful; so how can that be answered?”)

This ḥadīth, which Muslim reported, tells us of a level different from what people imagine of the station in which the believer ought to be.

Why Is Allah Described as Good?

“Allah is good and accepts only what is good” is a matter agreed upon, but what is the connection between the good that the believer will give and the description of the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, as good? Had he ﷺ wished, he could have placed the point of resemblance elsewhere, saying: Islam is good, or the deed is good. But to pair the good essence of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, with what proceeds from us raises the ceiling; for it fixes your eye on what is above the heavens and the earth, and beyond existence to the One who brings it into existence, glory be to Him. And as we always repeat, our eyes set out from our bodies and stop only before the Lord of the worlds, and this is the principle that we should apply in all the conduct of our lives: in your prayer you look to your Lord, in your food and drink you look to your Lord's reckoning, and in your dealings with people you are only dealing with your Lord. He is the object of your gaze in everything that proceeds from you at every time and moment.

The Meaning of “Ṭayyib”

And why did the Prophetic wording choose the word “ṭayyib” in particular? They said: the ṭayyib is what is good in every respect, with no taint or impurity mixed into it in the slightest. This is why you see that the opposite of the ṭayyib in the Qur'an is the khabīth, and the opposite of the ṭayyibāt is the khabāʾith. So what is the khabīth? It is the thing in which the good is mixed with the bad, and it may be hidden or it may be apparent. In colloquial speech it is said that a person was struck by the “malignant” disease, and we seek refuge in Allah; that is, no trace of it appeared in him until after a while, after it had destroyed him from within.

So the ṭayyib is a pointer to this perfection that the Muslim seeks in himself: that you be complete to the extent of your capacities, tools and means, with no deficiency or flaw touching you, and no defect afflicting you, outward or inward, so that you strive to resemble, in your character, the One who created you. “Allah is good and accepts only what is good”; it is as though the Prophet ﷺ places within you the eye of a watcher that glances at every action that proceeds from you: every word, every look, every hearing, every feeling, every thought. Will this deed be accepted by the One who is Good, or does He accept only what is good? And it is as though he opens the sight of your heart and its insight upon everything that proceeds from you.

The Example of the Merchant and the Currency

Imagine a merchant standing counting money; whatever is damaged he takes out and sets aside, because it is not fit for transactions. So imagine that the believer's eye is on his conduct, counting and sifting it; whatever is not sound he sets aside and says: this is not fit for what is between me and my Lord, glory be to Him, the Exalted. Just as that spoiled money is not fit for dealings between one merchant and another merchant who takes money from him, so whatever of it is damaged is not a matter for dealing.

And we are in constant, continuous dealing between us and Allah, glory be to Him; from our daily dealings we take what we raise up to the Lord of the worlds. Yet Allah, Mighty and Majestic, does not accept from you the dirham and the dinar in their tangible form; He accepts them only translated into a deed that is sifted: what is good from you He accepts, and what is bad He returns.

The Prayer That Is Rejected

It has been reported in a narration^[2] that when the servant prays and does his prayer well, so that it comes out in the best performance, it ascends to the Lord of the worlds; if it is sound and sincere it is accepted, and it says to him: May Allah honor you as you have honored me. And if it is tainted with damage it is rejected, and it says to him: May Allah lose you as you have lost me. The prayer has become a form of the “money changer” that goes up to the Lord of Majesty, glory be to Him, and is accepted or rejected, and if it is rejected, it prays against you.

Imagine a person doing a deed that has that soundness in it, and yet it is rejected for him; so what of the people of sins and evil deeds? We ask Allah for safety. But analogy is not permitted here; we should not say: this one is among the people of righteous deeds and this one is among the people of evil deeds. We are not speaking at all about the people of evil deeds, but about the ascent of the believers who ascend to their Lord with their deeds, who want to be among the elite of creation, and want to resemble those to whom the Prophet ﷺ likens them in his saying: “And Allah has commanded the believers with what He commanded the messengers.”

The Command to the Believers Is Like the Command to the Messengers

It is as though he ﷺ lifts you up to the ceiling of the messengers, and why not, when we strive to set our feet in line beside the foot of the Prophet ﷺ on the Day of Resurrection at the Pond? None draws near him except one who resembled him and compared his deeds in his life with the deed of His Messenger ﷺ. And it is as though I see the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, commanding the believers with what He commanded the messengers.

So what is the common measure? ﴿كُلُوا مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَاعْمَلُوا صَالِحًا﴾ (“Eat of the good things and do righteous deeds”) for the messengers, and ﴿كُلُوا مِنْ طَيِّبَاتِ مَا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِلَّهِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ إِيَّاهُ تَعْبُدُونَ﴾ (“Eat of the good things We have provided for you, and be grateful to Allah, if it is Him that you worship”) for the believers^[3]. And note the difference: to the messengers, “eat of the good things” in general, and to the believers, “eat of the good things We have provided for you.” Why this difference? Because the messengers are at a degree of certainty by which they know that what they eat is only from the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, so they need no reminder. As for the believers, in whose hearts faith rises and falls, increases and decreases from time to time, they need someone to remind them that the good in their hands is only the handiwork of their Lord and His provision, glory be to Him, the Exalted.

The Man Who Travels at Length

Then we say, in the remainder of the ḥadīth: «ثم ذكر الرجلَ يطيلُ السفرَ أشعثَ أغبرَ، يمدّ يديه إلى السماء: يا رب يا رب» (“Then he mentioned the man who travels at length, disheveled and dusty, stretching out his hands to the sky: ‘O Lord, O Lord’”). The Messenger of Allah ﷺ tells us of a strange type of person: a man who has dressed in the unlawful, eaten the unlawful, drunk the unlawful, and still keeps saying, not once but repeating it: O Lord, O Lord. Then he ﷺ says: «فأنّى يُستجاب لذلك؟» (“So how can that be answered?”)

This word caught my attention: had it been “fa-annā yustajābu lahu” (“so how can he be answered”), it would have been a reference to the rejection. But “yustajābu li-dhālika” (“so how can that be answered”) refers to the state he is in; if he changes it, he returns to the place of acceptance again, and if he amends his levels of earning, he returns to the mercy of the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him. If he lifts his hand from the unlawful he practices, or the earning by which the money comes to him, he is returning to this great gathering in which the people of faith bear witness to Allah's oneness.

Earning Is a Matter of Belief

And when we discuss the matter of seeking provision, or specifically earning a livelihood, we are speaking of a pure, sincere matter of belief: whoever believes in Allah alone, and knows that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is the Provider, the Possessor of power, the Firm, will not stretch his hand toward what the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, has forbidden, out of certainty in Allah. And whoever earns by the unlawful or the doubtful, that indicates that his faith and certainty still need to be completed, and we ask Allah, Blessed and Exalted, for safety.

Conclusion

The Prophet ﷺ says: “Allah is good and accepts only what is good.” So whoever wants acceptance for himself, let him be good in his very self; whoever wants acceptance for his wealth and his charity, let him earn it from what is good; and whoever wants acceptance for his prayer, let him take care that it be good, just as the Lord of the worlds is good.

We ask Allah, the Most High, the Almighty, to make our whole lives good, to make our food from the good things, and that no impurity, little or much, mix into it with us, and we ask Him, Blessed and Exalted, to set right our hearts and to set right our state of mind.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Reported by Muslim (1015) on the authority of Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him). ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The speaker related this meaning “in what has come as a narration,” without attribution. Something similar is reported (with the wording “May Allah preserve you as you have preserved me” and “May Allah lose you as you have lost me”) on the authority of ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit (may Allah be pleased with him), with weakness in its chain, and the wording “May Allah honor you” that appears in the transcript differs from it; so it is not to be attributed to the Prophet ﷺ as a text, nor is its authenticity to be asserted. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The two verses are in Sūrat al-Muʾminūn, verse 51, and Sūrat al-Baqarah, verse 172.