Thawab

Sawāb or Thawāb (Arabic: ثواب‎‎) is an Arabic term meaning "reward". Specifically, in the context of an Islamic worldview, thawab refers to spiritual merit or reward that accrues from the performance of good deeds and piety.

The word thawab is in use in a large geography where people believe in Islam, although the spelling and pronunciation of the word would slightly change. In Kazakh society, for instance, it may be pronounced as "sauap", in Iran as "savab", in Arab areas as "thawab" and in India and Pakistan as "savab" or "sawab". In Bosnian and Turkish the word transforms to sevap.

Usually any and all good acts are considered to contribute towards earning sawab, but for a Muslim there are certain acts that are more rewarding than others. The primary contributing factor on the extent of the reward is based on one's intention in one's heart - the silent, unspoken one that God is aware of and not the expressed, articulated one. These may be one and the same, but the articulation is not required prior to performing the deed.

The meritorious acts in Islam can be divided into categories - the spiritual good and the moral good. There cannot be moral good without the spiritual good. Or at least the moral good will not have a high bearing if not accompanied by the spiritual good.

Spiritual good includes the acts of worship including Prayer (obligatory and supererogatory), remembrance of God in the aftermath of the prayer or at any other time, acts of prescribed charity (zakat), reading of the Quran, among others.

The moral good comes from treating parents with love and affection, and not with disdain; visiting sick people, keeping ties of kinship, spending money wisely in charitable causes, giving family their due rights, etc.

The relative merits of each act lies with God alone, and is dependent on such factors as the extent of the level of sacrifice, the difficulty endured (or that one would endure from doing the good), intention for benefits in the hereafter, etc.

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