When you do something right, does your heart automatically affirm to it? Is there a feeling of definite emotional high whenever something noble, or at least, something that fights the wrong, is done by you?
Answer
If you have done something that is clearly right, then your conscience would most certainly be satisfied. However, on some occasions you may get a feeling that you haven’t any clear signals from your “inside” indicating whether what you did was right or not. This is because of the fact that our actions and intentions are not always unquestionably pure. One thing is clear that the intellect the Almighty has given us must be continuously employed in the light of the guidance of His religious message to decide whether what we are doing is acceptable or not. A satisfied conscience is no criterion for you to conclude that what you did was correct if it goes against the clear verdict of the Shari’ah, although it is difficult to imagine that even though one has gone against the Shari’ah one’s conscience will still be satisfied. At times the reason why we would not be satisfied despite apparently following the Shari’ah is that we might actually be mistaken that what we are following is actually a requirement of the Shari’ah.
A person asked Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him): “What is faith?” He said: “When a good deed becomes a source of pleasure for you and an evil deed becomes a source of disgust for you, then you are a believer.” He again said Allah’s Messenger: “What is a sin?” Whereupon he said: “When something pricks your conscience, give it up.” (Tirmidhi)