Abud Darda’ told of his hearing the Prophet delivering a discourse on the pulpit and saying, “He who fears standing before his Lord will have two paradises.” He asked, “Even if he commits fornication and even if he steals, messenger of God?” but he said a second time, “He who fears standing before his Lord will have two paradises.” He asked a second time, “Even if he commits fornication and even if he steals, messenger of God?” and he said a third time, “He who fears standing before his Lord will have two paradises.” He asked a third time, “Even if he commits fornication and even if he steals, messenger of God?” to which he replied, “Even in spite of Abud Darda’.”
‘Uqba b. ‘Amir reported God’s messenger as saying, “One who does evil deeds and afterwards does good deeds is like a man who was wearing a tight coat of mail which choked him, then did a good deed and a ring was loosened, then did another and another was loosened, so that it fell at last to the ground.”
While we were with him, meaning with the Prophet, a man came forward wearing a garment and carrying something wrapped up in his hand. He said, “Messenger of God, I passed by a thicket of trees in which I heard the chirping of young birds, so I took them and put them in my garment. Their mother came and flew round over my head, so I uncovered them to let her see them, and when she alighted on them I wrapped them all up in my garment, and these are what I have with me.” He gave command to put them down, and I did so,* but their mother would not leave them, whereupon God’s messenger said, “Do you wonder at the pity of the young birds’ mother for her young? By Him who sent me with the truth, God shows more pity towards His servants than the mother of young birds shows to her young. Take them back and put them where you got them, their mother being with them.” So he took them back.
*The use of the first person seems strange here. The command was given to the man who was holding the bundle, and so one would have expected "and he did so." This is not the kind of sentence in which the change of person frequently used in Arabic style seems natural. As the text stands it would seem that ‘Amir took the bundle from the man and laid it down.
Narrated Ibn ‘Abbas reported God’s messenger as saying, “God records the good deeds and the evil deeds. If anyone intends to do a good deed but does not do it, God enters it for him in His record as a complete good deed:
and if he intends to do a good deed and does it, God enters it for him in His record as ten to seven hundred and many more times as much. If anyone intends to do an evil deed and does not do it, God enters it for him in His record as a complete good deed; but if he intends to do it and does it, God records it for him as one evil deed.”
