Minute with a Muslim #046 – Do I Really Need Religion To Be a Good Person

Do you have to believe in religion to be a good person to be a moral person? And the answer is pretty much yes, you do. Now, that's not to say that's not to say that people who don't believe in anything, can't help other people or do good things for other people, right? But it is, is it a metaphysical good? First of all, meaning is it going to benefit their own souls that relies on your intention, if you're intending to please your creator, you don't have any ulterior motives, you're not doing it for reputation, or for status or for anything else. It has to be sincere and part of sincerity is out of gratitude to your Creator, in order for it to do beneficial work on your soul.

And we're not just talking about the effect it's having on the receivers. What about you the doer? That's the first thing. And the second thing is that, you know, just Realistically speaking, who's going to be able to maintain the motivation to do the good when it's difficult when it's hard when it might cost you money, when it might cost you a job when it might cost you your life? Right? There's lots of literature out there about the Holocaust and different people who went through the Holocaust, and who were some of the people who were able to survive the best or the people who had faith, right? Because their morality wasn't going to be just when it's easy, their sense of ethics

isn't going to be just when it's easier, or it doesn't cost me anything, right, that people are doing it with a much more robust reason. And so it's more sustainable, it's more robust, and it's going to last, this is something that Allah subhanaw taala says, and sort of Hapa when he talks about the people in Paradise, he says for the person who receives his book and his right hand, and he's going to be in paradise, what was the sort of thing that was the factor that got him into paradise? He says, in need of an end to end Nemo out in high Serbia, I thought I believed I anticipated that I was going to be held to account. That's huge. I always bring up the example of

speeding, right. It's like if you go on the highway, you've got the speed limits, 55 miles an hour, or 65 or 70 miles an hour, and how many people listen to that. The minority of people are driving, you know, 55 or less or whatever, right? Why? Because you don't expect to be held to account you expect to get away with it. And if you expect to get away with it, human nature is you're going to push it and try to get away with what you can and then not always, but definitely often. Now if you know for certain that you're not going to get away with it, that you are going to be held to account then you are going to be on the straight and narrow. You're going to do what's right and you're

going to strive your hardest to constantly and continuously do what's right because you know that you're going to pay the price in the end