Better to Leave Tracking and Counting Good Deeds

12-6-2023 | IslamWeb

Question:

Is it permissible to keep track of your worship as reading Quran and the like, in order to increase it over time. Is not it considered as a bad etiquette towards Allah?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

There is no impoliteness with Allah Almighty in this tracking and counting, but it is better to leave it, for a person is more in need of counting his bad deeds and sins than of counting his Adhkar (remembrance of Allah) and good deeds. Let us ponder on the statement of the great companion Abdullah ibn Mas’ood with the people sitting in circles in the mosque waiting for the prayer. In every circle there was a man, and in their hands, they had pebbles. He would say: Sayالله أكبر Allahu akbar (Allah is the Greatest) one hundred times, and they would say Allahu akbar one hundred times. He would say: Say لا إله إلا الله La ilaha illa Allah (There is no God worthy of worship but Allah) one hundred times, and they would say La ilaha illa Allah one hundred times. He would say: Say سبحان الله Subhan Allah (How Exalted is Allah) one hundred times, and they would say Subhan Allah one hundred times. Then ‘Abdullah ibn Mas’ood said to them: “Count your bad deeds, for I guarantee to you that none of your good deeds will be lost.”’ [Sunan Al-Darimi]

This counting can cause self-conceit, and a person realizes whether or not he has done well in acts of worship without this calculation and counting, as he realizes this by his daily recitation of part of the Quran, for example.

Allah knows best.