The Quran about God’s contentment

In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful

The actions of believers originate not just from faith, but from some perspective in the future, motivating them to do this or that deed. The main incentive for the believer is a successful outcome on the Day of Debt. In order for the result to be successful, it is necessary to deserve God’s contentment, which motivates certain decisions of the believer. In the Quran, to refer to the concept of contentment, the word “riduanun” is used:

So is one who pursues the contentment of God like one who brings upon himself the discontentment of God and whose refuge is Hell? And wretched is the destination. They are varying degrees in the sight of God, and God is Seeing of whatever they do! (3:162)

 

As we have seen, the contentment of God is absolutely beneficial to man. Awareness of the obvious benefits for believers allows us to overcome any difficulties and to pass the evil outcome:

So they returned with favour from God and bounty, no evil having touched them. And they pursued the contentment of God, and God is the possessor of great bounty! (3:174)

For the poor emigrants who were expelled from their homes and their properties, seeking bounty from God and [His] contentment and supporting God and His messenger. Those are the truthful! (59:8)

 

In addition to overcoming of difficulties, the desire for God’s contentment helps to observe the rites prescribed by God in full and with sincerity:

O you who have believed, seeking bounty from their Lord and [His] contentment! Do not violate the rites of God: the month forbidden for battles or the sacrificial animals and garlanding or secure house forbidden for battles, (5:2)

 

An inseparable connection with the previous messages to people shows that the desire for God’s contentment was a distinctive feature of the believers:

Muhammad is the Messenger of God. Those with him are forceful against the closed ones, merciful among themselves. You see them bowing and prostrating, seeking bounty from God and His contentment. Their mark is on their faces from the trace of prostration. That is their example in the Torah. And their example in the Gospel is as a plant which produces its offshoots and strengthens them so they grow firm and stand upon their stalks, delighting the sowers – so that God may enrage by them those who closed themselves.

God has promised those who believe and corrected themselves among them forgiveness and a great reward! (48:29)

 

The identification of truth concealed by the holders of the Prescription is one of the main goals of the mission of the messenger, which is to earn God’s contentment:

O holders of the Prescription! There has come to you Our messenger making clear to you much of what you used to conceal of the Prescription and overlooking much. There has come to you from God a light – a clear Prescription. By which God guides those who pursue His contentment to the ways of humility and brings them out from darknesses into the light, by His permission, and guides them to a straight path. (5:15-16)

 

Even invented by the holders of the Prescription, monasticism is evaluated through the prism of their aspiration to God’s contentment:

Then We sent following their footsteps Our messengers and followed [them] with Isa (Jesus), the son of Maryam (Mary), and gave him the Gospel. And We placed in the hearts of those who followed him compassion and mercy and monasticism, which they innovated; We did not prescribe it for them except [that they did so] seeking the contentment of God. But they did not observe it with due observance. (57:27)

 

The concealment of the truth, the superficiality of faith, the search for the benefit of near life, leads the Muslims, as the holders of previous Prescriptions, to formalism and delusion, which leads only to Hell. And only a real desire for God’s contentment allows the same action to be directed along the path to salvation:

Then is one who laid the foundation of his building on righteousness from God and His contentment better or one who laid the foundation of his building on the edge of a bank about to collapse, so it collapsed with him into the fire of Hell? And God does not guide the obscurantists!(9:109)

 

The contentment of God is expressed not only by successes in this life, but mainly in the latter:

Say, “Shall I inform you of [something] better than that?

For those who circumspect will be gardens in the presence of their Lord beneath which rivers flow, wherein they abide, and purified spouses and contentment from God.

And God is Seeing of [His] servants – Those who say, “Our Lord, indeed we have believed, so forgive us our trespasses and protect us from the punishment of the fire!” The patient, the true, the obedient, those who spend, and those who seek forgiveness before dawn! (3:15-17)

Their Lord gives them good tidings of mercy from Him and contentment and of gardens for them wherein is enduring pleasure! (9:21)

 

The unevenness of the adornments of near life compared with success in the last life is described many times by God in the Quran, which allows sincere believers not to get carried away by temptations, but to strive for the contentment of God:

Know that the life of this world is but amusement and diversion and adornment and boasting to one another and competition in increase of wealth and children – like the example of a rain whose plant growth pleases the tillers; then it dries and you see it turned yellow; then it becomes debris. And in the hereafter is severe punishment and forgiveness from God and contentment. And what is the worldly life except the enjoyment of delusion! (57:20)

 

As can be seen from these passages, God’s contentment is described along with the gardens given as a reward. The contentment of God is something even greater, a higher reward from God:

God has promised the believing men and believing women gardens beneath which rivers flow, wherein they abide, and pleasant dwellings in gardens of perpetual residence; but God’s contentment is greater. It is that which is the great attainment. (9:72)