Easy Good Deeds – Book Review

Title: Easy Good Deeds 

Author: Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani

Translation: Javed Iqbal

Editing: Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, and Madge Conlan 

Hadith Referencing: Shaykh Muhammad Tayyab and Javed Iqbal

General Editor: Yahya Batha

Publisher: Turāth Publishing

Pages: 160

Cover, Size, and Weight: Paperback, 18.8cm x 12.7cm, at 195g

During Ramaḍān this year, I’d been on the search for a book that would be spiritually healing, as well as something that I wouldn’t have to read cover to cover in order to benefit from it. For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t working during the blessed month and I wanted to be able to maximise on that by reading and doing as much as I can to strengthen my personal relationship with Islām. The thing is, I didn’t really go out of my way to find this book, it was more something I stumbled across while browsing the shelves of a local bookstore. But, that in itself speaks to its incredibility. It’s not a book that needs to be raved about in order to get people to pay attention. It is humble in its aesthetics but spectacular in content. It carries itself with as much humility and respect as Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani himself, and I have never seen a truer reflection of character.

Unlike the typical book, Easy Good Deeds is broken down into 81 sections rather than thematic chapters. When I’d originally begun reading this, I didn’t quite understand why one would do this to a book if they wanted to engage their readers for the entirety of the book. However, as I continued to read, I understood the need to break the 160 pages down in this way. By keeping each deed brief but concise, one is able to use the book as a point of reference that can be revisited frequently rather than one that has to be read in the style of a novel in order to make sense of it. With topics ranging from ‘Love for the Sake of Allāh’ to ‘Removing an Obstacle from One’s Path’, and ‘Responding to the Adhān’, to ‘Optimism and Hope from Allāh’, this small book is able to pack a big punch.

The book’s purpose can be summarised in its entirety by this short section by Yahya Batha in the Publisher’s Foreword wherein he writes:

Al-Bukhārī and Muslim have narrated a hadith from Sayyidah Ā’ishah رضي الله عنه that the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said, “The most beloved of actions to Allāh ﷻ are those that are regular, even if they are little.” 

In this book, the honorable Shaykh Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani has compiled, from the teachings of Allāh ﷻ and His Messenger ﷺ, those deeds that are very easy to implement and practice regularly. It is hoped that readers will study this book and then find time on a daily basis to incorporate the easy deeds mentioned into the mundane daily routine. By doing this, Allāh-willing, we can be included in the virtue of the aforementioned hadith.

Priced at a humble £5, this book is an absolute steal. Easy Good Deeds allows people to overcome the common misunderstanding that Islāmic teachings are difficult to practice and implement into daily life, as well as to be exposed to other teachings they may not have necessarily known which are just as easy to practice and gain good deeds through. A pocket-sized compilation of righteous actions ranging across a wide spectrum of areas and navigating the vast ocean of the Prophetic Sunnah, Easy Good Deeds is one such book that appeals to those of any mentality and age. Mufti Taqi has written with a sensitivity beyond common comprehension that allows one and all to be able to relate to whichever deed they happen to find themselves stumbling across. It is aptly described by HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad as “a kind of easy do-it-yourself “Ihya ‘Ulum al-Din” for the twenty-first century […] especially [for the] young people”, and I, for one, cannot disagree.

I would recommend that everyone reading this invest in a copy, either for themselves or for those in their lives. Easy Good Deeds is the gift that keeps on giving long after the covers have been closed.

It can be purchased directly via Turāth or on Amazon. Alternatively, put in a request at your local bookstore so that others can benefit from it too!

I pray that this book will be of as much benefit to you as it has been to me, and I ask that you keep the team at SiblingsOfIlm in your humble du’ās.

May Allāh ﷻ forgive me for any shortcomings in this.

– Reviewed by Ayesha Khanom (exclusively for SiblingsOfIlm)