I agree that laws are in place to keep society in order and to discourage people from committing crime.
On a human level I benefit and feel safer in a society where good laws are in place and reinforced.
That was not the focus of my question though.
My question is how much value has it in God's eyes, when somebody lives a 'good life' - but not willingly and out of submission to God, but only because s/he is forced to do so by the state law?
If - as you say - God judges our intentions and what is in our hearts (and personally I agree with you), then would that 'good life' gain no reward from God?
Oh I did not understand before that that is what you were asking about.
Actually there is a good answer for you but I hope you will keep an open mind to comprehend it:
Fundamentally speaking, intention has everything to do with a person's reward or punishment towards his actions. We are not rewarded for any good deeds that we do if we were doing it for self-serving purposes and not God. If we give money to someone because we intend to ask him later to help with something, or want him to speak well of us, or going after a tax-break, then our action earned us no reward with God, and it is not recorded for us.
On the authority of Omar Ibn Al-Khattab -RAA- narrated that the prophet -pbuh- said: "Acts and deeds are based on intention, and for every one his intention is counted. So whomever makes hijra (immigration) for God and his prophet, then his hijra was for God and his prophet, and whomever makes hijra for a business to attend to or a woman to marry, then his hijra is for whatever it is he intended it to be." [Agreed Upon Muslim and Bukhary] Note that hijra at the time was an act of worship that people were rewarded for, so it refers here to a good deed being done for a worldly gain rather than God, and that the one who does that loses any reward.
The prophet -pbuh- once told in a long hadith (narrated by Abi Abdul Rahman Abdullah Ibn Omar), about three believing people before the companion's time who were travelling together in the desert, and when they went into a cave for shelter, the rocks moved and a big one fell on the entrance to cover it. The three men tried to move it but couldn't, and one was inspired that they pray to God and supplicate to help them move the rock, and mention the best of their deeds in the supplication in begging for His support. The first man told his story (great act of kindness, love and respect shown to his parents) and the rock moved a little. The second one (which is our point here) prayed and supplicated with that he once loved and desired a woman madly and always talked to her about being with him but she refused, until one harsh year when she was in distress and need, he offered her a great amount of money in return to letting him have her. She reluctantly accepted, and when he became with her privately and was about to have his way, she said: "Fear god, and do not break the seal without righteousness" at which point his heart moved him and he collected himself and stood up, and left her with the money and walked away without commiting the act. So the man said "If you know that I did that for you God and accepted it from me as a good deed, help us in our need". The rock moved again. The third goes on but this is not the place for the whole thing....
This hadith along with others is the evidence that consensus of Islamic scholars depend on in teaching that abandoning a sin for the sake of God, is a good deed in itself. It is obedience to God and counts as doing an act of kindness, the bigger the sin avoided, the bigger the reward for NOT doing it. This of course is ONLY when someone is not doing the sin, because he is obeying the commands of God, rather than someone who doesn't want to get caught.
So yes, there is a difference between a woman who wears hijab because shariah law dictates it and in an Islamic society she can't go out in showing her "assets" without hassle and a run in with the law, and a woman who wears hijab out of commitment to the ordainment of God and willfully to please God.
So someone who doesn't do the sin because he was forced, does not receive the reward.
Here is a twist though: there is still a difference also between someone who is enforced to obey Shariah law or maybe or indirectly co-erced (for example not allowing alcohol so one cannot buy it even if one wants to) while fully intending to commit the sin, and someone who commits the sin regardless of whether against the law or he was in a place where it wasn't enforced.
The person who does the crime, earns the sin, and it gets recorded. If he does it while avoiding and meticulously evading detection from the law, it becomes even a greater sin because he is insistent upon it and his intention is strong and he has to lie and deceive to get away with it. The person who fears the law's punishment or is incapable of making the sin but wants to, gets nothing recorded because the act was not made.
So the intention differentiates between three groups of people:
- Those who avoid the sin because they wish to obey and please God, get rewarded for their piety and fighting temptations. The bigger the temptations they turn down, the bigger the reward.
- Those who do not commit the sin, because they didn't have access to it or were afraid of punishment based on law and shariah. They do not get the reward of the pious, but at least they get no sin recorded.
- Those who commit the sin, it gets recorded against them and God judges them. God is the all-knowing and all-judging and He either forgives them based on his will and mercy and the intentions and what lies in the person's heart, punishes them in this life to cleanse them of it so they don't pay for it in the afterlife (great mercy), delays the punishment till the grave and the afterlife where they receive great punishment in hell for it, or the sin is specifically grand and earns punishment both in this life and in the afterlife (like unkindness and ingratitude to parents, or abandoning prayers).
Hope this helped you understand.
God knows best.
