Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and Allah’s Blessing and Salutation be upon the most fortunate of His creatures and the ink of His words, our master Muhammad, and upon his family, as much as his status, that is known to none except Allah, SWT.

A question and an answer have interested me, and I will transmit it to you as I heard it.
The enquirer said: What is the difference between the Recompense (al-Jazaa), the wage (al-Ajr), the reward (al-Thawab) and the punishment (al-A’ikab)?
The answerer said: My dear son, I see things have confused you as indicated in your question! You have asked about four things but in reality they are only two things. The first is the Recompense, while the second is the Wage, but the third and fourth follow the second item, namely the Wage.

The Recompense (al-Jazaa) is the reward given on a deed.  The Recompense may be good or bad because its sort is derived from the sort of the deed, the Quran says, “Lia-jzeiahum Allah Ahsan ma A’milu wa Yzidahum min Fadlihi”, which translates as (That Allah may recompense them according to the best of their deeds, and add even more for them out of His Grace). This is an example of the good recompense for the good deed. “Wa Jazau sayeahtin sayeahtun mithluha” which translates as (The recompense for wrongdoing is punishment equal thereto); this is an example of the bad recompense for the bad deed.

From the above we understand that the recompense indicates the sort of reward to be gained by the doers, and the Wage is consequent to the recompense. If the deed is good its Recompense will be good and the amount of its Wage will be the level and degree of Pleasure and Reward granted to the worker. If the deed is bad its Wage will be Punishment of severity that is equal and consequent in level and type to the wrong doing.

Dear reader, I hope I have relayed the conversation between the enquirer and the answerer as it happened, and if that agrees with your opinion, that is good, and if not, you have endeavored and Allah is the Most Knower. “Wa Fawka Kuli Dhi I’lmin A’aleem”, which translates as, (But over all endued with knowledge is One, the All-Knowing.)

There is no power or might except with Allah

Original Arabic text was published in Behira Wal-Akalim Journal- Issue # 215

Filed under: Let It Be Good, O' Allah on January 17th, 2011