Correct your hidden state and Allah will correct your external
Virtue includes the manifestation of good character by the believer in relation to everyone and everything around him and even in relation to animals.
Good deeds are the pious activity of a person on this earth, in which he improves and corrects everything around him, fulfills his duties to the Almighty and His slaves, encourages doing what is approved and restrains from what is reprehensible. Good deeds include all obvious types of worship of the believer, all his righteous deeds and approved actions.
As for improving the spiritual state of a believer, it is achieved through sincerity of intentions, purity of convictions and cleansing the heart from such mental illnesses as pride, envy, malice and others.
From ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr it is reported, “People once asked the Messenger of God ﷺ”, “Which of the people are the best?” He replied, “[The best of people is] anyone who has a sound heart and a truthful tongue.” The people said, “We know what it means to have a truthful tongue, but what does it mean to have a sound heart?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “This is a God-fearing person with a pure heart, in which there is no sin, no debauchery, no malice and no envy.” (Narrated by Ibn Majah, Bayhaqi “Shu‘ab al-Iman”)
Just as Islam encourages a believer to improve his external state, his character and deeds, it encourages him to cleanse his heart of malice and envy and to be sincere to all his brothers in faith.
Almighty Allah will certainly correct the external state of one who has corrected his internal state. This is what the great scholars passed on to each other.
It was narrated from Ma’qil ibn ‘Ubaydullah al-Jizri that the scholars, when they met, would bequeath this to each other, and when they were far from each other, they would write to each other about it in letters: “Whoever corrects his hidden state, Allah will correct his external state, whoever corrects what is between him and Allah, Allah will correct what is between him and people, and whoever cares about his future life, Allah will relieve him of worries about this life.” (Ibn Abu Ad-Dunya, “Al-Ikhlas wa an-niyat”, 25)
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, always monitor your external state and correct it, and also monitor your internal (hidden) state and purify it. Beware of all the troubles that your words and deeds bring you, and all diseases of the heart.
Be fair before Almighty Allah and He will consider you truthful: you will become the owners of happiness in both the worldly and eternal life, because in this lies all good!
