Allah says:
Say, “Whether you conceal what is in your breasts or reveal it, Allah knows it. And He knows that which is in the heavens and that which is on the earth. And Allah is over all things competent. (3:29)
A little bit over, Allah says:
The Day every soul will find what it has done of good present [before it] and what it has done of evil; it will wish that between itself and that [evil] was a great distance. And Allah warns you of Himself, and Allah is Kind to [His] servants. (3:30)
Allah Knows it All
As your sins are brought forth on the Day of Judgment, you would want nothing more than to have absolutely no association to those sins, and to be as distant as possible.
Everything on that day comes out. Allah either will call you to account for it privately; or it will be publicly put on display for the nations to see.
Allah told us that He knows, whether we hide it or we disclose it. And that’s actually what counts.
Meaning what?
If you’ve managed to hold off so many of these ugly sins from the sight of people, that doesn’t mean that they won’t be brought out on the Day of Judgment.
You may very well proceed through this life and pass away without many of your secrets being made known, but Allah knows.
Allah Loves the Secret Good Deeds
Imam Ibn Al Jawzi said something very beautiful:
“Know that if people are impressed by you, they’re not impressed by you, they’re impressed by the veil that Allah has provided for you.”
If people think good of you, it’s not because that’s who you are, it’s because of the veil that you have that Allah has beautified.
But then look who we get into in terms of stories. We get into the lives of people that actually had good secrets.
The Secret Dua of the Mother of Mary
The secret of the mother of Mary, Hannah, or Anne, the wife of Imran, as she’s bearing this child and she has this conversation with Allah, she dedicates this child to Allah; the private moment, the secret truth and sincerity that this woman had when she gave birth to her daughter thinking that it would be a son, gives birth to her daughter; and has these wishes, claims and intentions that she makes before her Lord.
And look at what Allah makes out of this woman’s intentions!
The Secret Dua of Prophet Zachariah
And we have Zachariah, when he takes to the corner after he sees Mary, and he calls upon Allah with a secret prayer. Zachariah didn’t know that those words that he would use in that prayer would become part of the Quran that we would recite out loud in masajid and in our homes.
And there isn’t a moment in the world right now where the private prayer of Zachariah is not been recited by somebody.
Zachariah was so quiet when he called upon Allah that no one around him could hear because he wanted to maintain that sincerity; he wanted his dua to be sincere. So if you were standing ten feet away from him, you would not be able to hear him.
But here you are, thousands of years later, you hear him! Allah has made his words known to you. Allah brought out his good secrets.
The point is: What are your secrets? What are the things that are between you and your Creator that no one knows about?
How much of it is bad and how much of it is good? How much of it is private worship and sincere supplication; and how much of it is sin and secret disobedience of Allah?
And how much of it do you want to come out on the Day of Judgment that no one else has seen up until that point?
What’s your secret? Who are you in the dark? What do you have between you and Allah?