The Prophet ﷺ said: “Righteousness is good character, and sin is what causes uneasiness within the heart and that which you would detest people to find out.” Character can take on many different meanings; we can define it as acting properly in a circumstance or situation. The Prophet ﷺ describes righteousness as a whole to be good character. We often think the dominant part of our <em>deen</em>, or relationship with Allah ﷻ, is our <em>‘ibadat</em>, or worship (such as <em>salah</em>, fasting, etc.), but the essence of the <em>deen</em> is actually our <em>mu’amalat</em>, or dealings with others. A purpose of our worship is to improve our character; the end goal or result of our <em>‘ibadat</em> is goodness in our <em>mu’amalat</em>. It was this goodness of character that defined the Muslims and propelled the spread of Islam for 1400 years, with the character of the Prophet ﷺ being the best and most influential. We should strive to resemble this character of the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions to perfect our <em>deen</em> and also to attract others to Islam.
Sin is what causes uneasiness within the heart and that which you would detest people to find out. Those with pure hearts feel uneasiness with the prospect of committing sins. We should be thankful that Allah ﷻ made sinful those things that are uneasy to our natural disposition, or <em>fitrah</em>, such as lying, stealing, cheating, etc. We can use this feeling of uneasiness to guide us away from sin if we are in a situation in which we are not sure what to do. We can also use the feeling of shame, or not wanting others to know about the sin, to gauge whether or not we should commit that act.
