What is Birr (righteousness)?
 
 
لَيْسَ الْبِرَّ أَنْ تُوَلُّوا وُجُوهَكُمْ قِبَلَ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ وَلَكِنَّ الْبِرَّ مَنْ ءَامَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالْكِتَابِ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ وَءَاتَى الْمَالَ عَلَى حُبِّهِ ذَوِي الْقُرْبَى وَالْيَتَامَى وَالْمَسَاكِينَ وَابْنَ السَّبِيلِ وَالسَّائِلِينَ وَفِي الرِّقَابِ وَأَقَامَ الصَّلَاةَ وَءَاتَى الزَّكَاةَ وَالْمُوفُونَ بِعَهْدِهِمْ إِذَا عَاهَدُوا وَالصَّابِرِينَ فِي الْبَأْسَاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ وَحِينَ الْبَأْسِ أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا وَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُتَّقُونَ(البقرة 177)

It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards East or West; but it is righteousness to believe in Allah and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers; to spend of your substance, out of love for Him, for your kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask, and for the ransom of slaves; to be steadfast in prayer, and practice regular charity, to fulfil the contracts which you have made; and to be firm and patient, in pain (or suffering) and adversity, and throughout all periods of panic. Such are the people of truth, the God-fearing. (al-Baqarah 2:177)
 
 
The desire to do good deeds is imbibed in all souls. Like body wants Sukoon (inner peace and satisfaction) the soul also wants Sukoon. If you look at any human being regardless of his/her religious belief and social status he/she wants to do some good deeds. Human fitrah (inner self) can inherently identify what is good and bad. That is why good deeds are called Maroof (well known) and bad deeds are called Munkar (unknown). The basic human moral values are permanent and unaffected by time and progress.
 
If we divide humans broadly into four groups (bad people, common public, professional and religious leaders), in general one can see that each category does some sort of good deeds. Let’s broadly categorize humans into following four categories of people and examine their notion of good [1]:
 
Bad people: These people are not considered good in any society (e.g. criminals). If we observe they also do some kind of good deeds. For example you might have heard about thieves helping poor and needy, pocket pickers not stealing from their own group members or honestly reporting their income to their leader. These people consider following their code of conduct is good deed.
 
Normal People: These are common folk in society. One can see these people are involved in different types of good deeds (e.g. building hospitals, schools, helping needy, etc). At the same time they also commit several sins (e.g. dishonesty, bribery, etc). One of part of their life has good and the other part has bad, as if they are living two simultaneous lives.
 
Religious leaders: This category represents scholars, Imams, etc. They are very careful about religious rituals. They can explain minute details of religious acts, but at the same time they may have problems in other aspects (e.g. manners).  For these people good deeds are religious rituals only, and completely lack spirit (essence) of good deeds.
 
Professionals: These people hold high state in society (e.g CEO, MDs). They are cultured and civilized people, but very stubborn and negligent about religious matters. They may have righteous sprit, but no rituals.
 
One can see that each group has good part, but incomplete. Each one has his/her notion of good and sticks to it. As Allah mentions in Surah Mominoon
“each party rejoices in that which is with itself.” Quran 23:53
 
May be the above point can be better explained from the tale of “six blind men”. One day six blind men went to visit elephant. Each blind man touches a different part of elephant’s body to learn what it is like. They return and explain their notion of elephant. They conclude that the elephant is like a wall, snake, spear, tree, fan or rope, depending upon where they touch.  Author of this story concludes that “Partly they all are correct and but all of them were wrong”. Their notion about elephant is far away from truth.
 
 
This ayah (verse) is very important in this context as it gives comprehensive overview of righteousness. It shows that good deeds are not just limited to body or soul, but combination of many aspects related to body and soul.
 
This ayah was revealed to the Prophet –peace be upon him- when some hypocrites and non-believers in Madinah wanted to engage Muslims in the dispute over the issue of the Qiblah. Allah told Muslims in this ayah not to get entangled in minor issues. Rather they should focus their attention on the main things of their religion. The real religion or al-Birr is not limited to following some forms and rituals. The true religiousness or righteousness consists of some important qualities and actions. This ayah describes the following qualities that define the righteousness:
 
1. Emaan: Belief in Allah (God).  One may ask why belief is linked to righteous deeds. To explain this we need to know the difference between good and righteous deed. A good deed is the one that that gives Sukoon to heart and the righteous deed is one which is acceptable to Allah (swt). Emaan converts good deeds to righteous deeds. Emaan includes:

a.   Belief in Allah. Our intention should be to please Allah and deeds should be done for the sake of Allah.
b.   Belief in Day of Judgement. We should have belief that we are responsible for own deeds, and that we will be given fully recompense on this day.
c.   Belief on the Angels, the Book and the Prophets. This is the chain that brings us the knowledge (Ilm) about Allah, His command, and day of judgement. Without this knowledge we are left to our desires and conjectures.

i.      We should restrict our good deeds to what has been set by Allah (delivered to us by Prophets); we shouldn’t exceed limits otherwise the same good deed becomes destructive. For example, love of God is a very good act. But we can see from history when the same love exceeded the limit then it led to extremes like monasticism (which is strictly forbidden in Islam). Similar people exceeded in love of prophets to such extent that prophets are given the status of God (which takes one out of Islam).
ii.      Prophets not only deliver the message but also act as role models. They tell us what are the righteous deeds, and ratio and proposition of righteous deeds. Sunnah (teachings and practices of Prophet Muhammad –peace be upon him) keeps us in moderation and deviating from Sunnah leads to extremism.
 
2. Charity: This encompasses everything that one spends for the sake of Allah, despite his love for it. If there is no love then no sacrifice. The ayah also clarifies where one should spend this money. Wealth should be spent on the relatives, the orphans, the needy, the wayfarer, those who ask, and on the ransom of slaves. The closest relatives have the first priority. It is not correct to help others when one’s own relatives are in desperate need. One should note the following hadith (only summary is presented here).  
a.   Sympathy and empathy is part of Emaan; Allah will not show Mercy on those who don’t show mercy on people.
b.   The one who is deprived of mercy (sympathy and empathy), deprived of everything.
If one wants to be righteous then he/she needs to have sympathy for Allah’s creation.
 
3. Devotion and worship: Performing regular prayers and giving regular charity
a    Equally important are establishing Prayer and Zakat. The religious rituals are part of righteousness. One cannot separate them from Emaan and Charity. Note that charity is something extra after fulfilling obligation of Zakat.
 
4. Fulfilling the promise and contracts: It is part of righteousness to fulfill the business, emotional and social contracts, and the contract made with Allah. It is part of righteousness fulfill all commitments. The society that has this habit of fulfilling contracts will be peaceful and prosperous.
 
5. Patience and perseverance in the situations of poverty, sickness or times of panic. One shouldn’t move away from his target for every small hindrance, but instead continue with patience. Muslims shouldn’t despair. Islam is religion of optimism and hope.
 
Islam wants to build the individuals and the civilization on these principles. These principles must integrate in our personality and we must build our social order on these principles. We cannot distinguish between these principles; we cannot say either this or that; everything is one organ and if a part is detached then it is of no use.
 
The people with above qualities are the truthful and indeed these people are righteous. No exception. If one thinks that he/she is pious, then he/she needs to have all of these characteristics.
 
May Allah help us to be among the truthful and righteous people. Ameen.
 
 
References: The contents of the articles are partially taken from Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi, “The True and Real Religion – Reflections on Ayat al-Birr”

[1] These categories are merely examples to illustrate the problem, and should not be considered as statements.