The Articles of Faith, Part 2
Section 11 of 31 · Foundations of Islam · Hamza Yusuf
A Good Action Is a Harmonic Action
But to go back to this idea of khayr and sharr: human beings are taken to account for the good they do and the evil they do. The Qurʾān says: for the soul is the good that it earned, and against the soul is the evil that it has acquired.
لَا يُكَلِّفُ ٱللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ۚ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا ٱكْتَسَبَتْ ۗ رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَآ إِن نَّسِينَآ أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَآ إِصْرًا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُۥ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِۦ ۖ وَٱعْفُ عَنَّا وَٱغْفِرْ لَنَا وَٱرْحَمْنَآ ۚ أَنتَ مَوْلَىٰنَا فَٱنصُرْنَا عَلَى ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ
“Allah does not obligate anyone beyond his capacity. For him is what he has earned, and on him what he has incurred.“Our Lord, do not hold us accountable, if we forget or make a mistake, and, Our Lord, do not place on us such a burden as You have placed on those before us, and, Our Lord, do not make us bear a burden for which we have no strength. And pardon us, and grant us forgiveness, and have mercy on us. You are our Lord. So then help us against the disbelieving people.”” (2:286)
So we are taken to account for the good and evil that we do in the world. The Qurʾān is emphasising the doing of good actions. One of the words that it uses for this is ḥasanāt, and the opposite is sayyiʾāt. Ḥasanāt — the real sense of the word is beauty. There is an idea that a good action is a congruous action. It is a harmonic action. And that a bad action is aesthetically unpleasing: it is cacophonic, it is ugly. The human being by nature recognises beauty, and recognises good. This is the idea in the Qurʾān when it says: We guided the human being to the two roads.
وَهَدَيْنَـٰهُ ٱلنَّجْدَيْنِ
“and showed him the two ways?” (90:10)
The two roads of good and evil. There is something inherent within the human being.