Will I Get Rewarded for a Good Deed If I Receive Benefit From It in This Life?

Answered by Shaykh Jamir Meah

Question: Assalamu alaykum

I live in house which is owned by my parents and our country allows me to save taxes by paying a rent to my parents. Does it reduce my reward on spending on parents if I do that?

Answer: Wa’alaykum assalam. I pray you are well.

The Prophet ﷺ has said, ‘Actions are according to intentions’ [Al Bukhari, Muslim]. The beauty of this is that if a person intended to do an act of good for the sake of Allah, yet didn’t end up doing it, they would nevertheless get the reward for what they intended.

However, if a person did an act of good for a reason other than for the sake of Allah, then they receive according to that intention.

Intentions

If you made the intention that you would have spent on your parents for the sake of Allah, irrespective of whether you are entitled to tax breaks or not, then your reward in the Afterlife will not be diminished in any way, even if you also receive the benefit of the tax breaks.

If your only intention when spending on your parents was to receive the tax breaks, then the tax breaks in themselves are a worldly blessing, but one cannot categorically say whether you will be rewarded in the next life or not for the act. And Allah knows best.

May Allah increase you in every good, and reward you for your looking after your parents.

Warmest salams,
[Shaykh] Jamir Meah

Shaykh Jamir Meah grew up in Hampstead, London. In 2007, he traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he spent nine years studying the Islamic sciences on a one-to-one basis under the foremost scholars of the Ribaat, Tarim, with a main specialization and focus on Shafi’i fiqh. In early 2016, he moved to Amman, Jordan, where he continues advanced studies in a range of Islamic sciences, as well as teaching. Jamir is a qualified homeopath.