Taha · Makki · ayah 75 of 135

Taha 20:75

وَمَن يَأْتِهِۦ مُؤْمِنًا قَدْ عَمِلَ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ فَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ لَهُمُ ٱلدَّرَجَـٰتُ ٱلْعُلَىٰ

“But whoever comes to Him as a believer having done righteous deeds - for those will be the highest degrees [in position]:”

Saheeh International

Essence

Whoever arrives before Allah with faith and with lives spent setting things right is given the highest steps, climbed one at a time.

A reflection

Righteous deeds are repair work

On a Saturday morning, a church hall becomes a repair café. Volunteers sit at long tables with screwdrivers and soldering irons. A woman brings in her late mother's reading lamp, which has not worked for years. A retired electrician fixes it in twenty minutes. When it lights, she has to sit down.

The ayah describes the believer who arrives before Allah qad ʿamila al-ṣāliḥāt, having done righteous deeds. The root of ṣāliḥāt carries an established picture. Sound, fit and set right. A broken thing restored to working order. A rift mended. A person working as they were made to.

That changes how we hear "righteous deeds". They are not only rituals, though rituals are among them. One commentator explains them as the obligatory deeds and the voluntary ones. Another: doing what one's Lord commanded and keeping away from what He forbade. In the root's picture, every one of them is a kind of repair. Prayer mends the heart's connection to its Lord. Charity mends a neighbour's need. Honesty mends trust. An apology mends a family.

Allah needs none of this repair work. He is free of need; it is people who are in need of Him (35:15). Whoever strives, strives for himself (29:6). The deeds set right the one who does them, and the world around them.

Many people today feel that their lives are mostly maintenance: emails, chores, bills. The Quran offers a different frame. Each day contains chances to set something right. Some are acts of worship. Some are acts of compassion for His creation. All of them count.

Ask yourself today: what is broken within reach of my hands? Then fix one thing, for His sake.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.