• Al-Barr (The Doer of Virtue and The Source of Piety)

This Attribute of Allah came in the verse 28 of Al-Toor (At-Tur). Its English translation is:

28. 
    “Verily, We used to invoke Him (Alone and none else) before. Verily, He is Al-Barr (the Most Subtle, Kind, Courteous, and Generous), the Most Merciful.”
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    This will be the saying of the people in Paradise. To understand the above verse you should read the verses from 17 to 27 before it.
    The Name Al-Barr has very vast meaning which indicate the Excellent virtues of Allah Azza wa Jall to us, the servants. So Allah Ta’aala bestows a lot of blessings on the servants. Allah is the Mawla of blessings, providing vastly forever even without the asking of the servants. There is no limit of the Kindness and generosity of Allah Azza wa Jall.

    Allah’s virtues to HIS servants are of two types:

    1. General, 2. Special.

    
    1. General Virtues:

    These are for all of the mankind in common. Allah Azza wa Jall said in surah Al-Israa (surah Bani-Israa-eel) verse 70:

    
    70. We have honoured the children of Adam; provided them with transport on land and sea; given them for sustenance things good and pure; and conferred on them special favours, above a great part of our creation.
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Another translation of the same verse along with its explanation is given below:

(17:70) Indeed, We honoured the progeny of Adam, and bore them across land and sea and provided them with good things for their sustenance, and exalted them above many of Our creatures.⁸⁵
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Exp. note 85:

85. That is, it is an obvious fact that the superiority man enjoys over all other beings on the earth and all that is in it, has not been bestowed upon him by a jinn or an angel or a prophet. Most surely that is Allah’s blessing and favor. Is it not then the height of folly and ignorance that after having achieved such a high rank, man should bow down before any creature of Allah instead of Him?

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And this honor given to mankind is in the beauty of his/her shape, body, clean and pious moral sense, and his/her ability to see, hear and think. He/she stands and walks upright on his/her legs and feet and eats with hand while animals eat with their mouth and walk on four limbs.

Allah has given numerous blessing to all man-kind in the form of different kind of foods as vegetables, fruits, meats etc. There are other numerous blessings as Allah Azza wa Jall said:

Wa in ta-uddu naimat-Allahi laa tuhsooha (If you start to count the blessing of Allah, you will not be able to count them).

2. Special virtues:
Allah gives guidance of HIS Deen Islam, and the ability to follow this Deen to whomever Allah wills and then gives success to the obedient servants here and in the Hereafter. So there are three places of the success of the obedient servants, those are:

1. Here in this world,

2. In the grave (Aalami-Barzakh),

3. In the Hereafter in Paradise.

Allah Azza wa Jall said in surah Al-Infitaar 13:

13. Verily, the Abrar (pious and righteous) will be in delight (Paradise);
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So in the Hereafter Allah Azza wa Jall will give more reward for our good deeds. According to a hadeeth shareef, the reward of one good deed is ten times to 700 times, while for making a sin the punishment shall be equal to the sinful deed.

This is also due to the Al-Barr Attribute of Allah Azza wa Jall that Allah forgives the sins of a sinner when he /she repents to Allah. Allah said in the verse 53 of surah Al-Zumar (Az-Zumar):

53. Say, “O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the Mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.”
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Like the verse (mentioned above) there are many ahadeeth shareef which encourage us on repentance. (This is because Allah wants people get saved from the Hell-Fire). But in case a sinner becomes proud and insists on making sins, particularly the sin of polytheism, then Allah’s punishments are also unique and everlasting. So we must stay humble before our Kind Lord Allah Azza wa Jall).

There is a Hadeeth Shareef in Muslim from Anas Bin Maalik rAa. He says:

((The Messenger of Allah said: “When a servant of Allah repents to Allah from his sins the Pleasure of Allah on his repentance is more than the one of you who was riding his camel in a desert when his camel disappeared (lost) from him. His food and drink (water) was on the camel. He couldn’t find it and became hopeless. Then he came to a tree and lay down in its shade hopeless from his camel. Meanwhile he saw his camel standing near him —-. The pleasure that he experienced, Allah’s Pleasure on the repentance of someone of you is more than his pleasure.”))      (Muslim)

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We must also know that Allah Al-Barr wants us to do birr (good, kindness, virtues) to others. So our hearts will be made closer to Allah as much as we do good deeds. Allah loves virtuous deeds. The following verse gives a summary of the virtuous deeds that we are ordered to do.

Surah Al-Baqarah verse 177:

(2:177) Righteousness does not consist in turning your faces towards the east or towards the west;¹⁷⁵ true righteousness consists in believing in Allah and the Last Day, the angels, the Book and the Prophets, and in giving away one’s wealth in love of Him to one’s kinsmen, the orphans, the poor and the wayfarer, and to those who ask for help, and in freeing the necks of slaves, and in establishing Prayer and dispensing the Zakah. True righteousness is attained by those who are faithful to their promise once they have made it and by those who remain steadfast in adversity and affliction and at the time of battle (between Truth and falsehood). Such are the truthful ones; such are the God-fearing.
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Exp. note 175:

175. Turning one’s face towards the east or the west is mentioned here only by way of illustration. The actual purpose of the verse is to emphasize that the observance of certain outward religious rites, the performance of certain formal religious acts out of conformism, and the manifestation of certain familiar forms of piety do not constitute that essential righteousness which alone carries weight with God and earns His recognition and approval.

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