Concerning the reward of the next world, He said “beauty,” which is to say that the reward is beautiful, but He did not say that about the reward of this world. This is because the reward of the afterworld is lasting, but the reward of this world is passing. The former comes into being constantly without blight and without trouble, but the latter is soon cut off and has blights and tribulations. God loves the beautiful-doers. The beautiful-doers are the “grateful” who are mentioned in verse 3:144.
3:148 God gave them this world’s reward and the beauty of the next world’s reward, and God loves the beautiful-doers.
A sound report has come that He says, “O My servants! If the first of you and the last of you, the men of you and jinn of you, the living of you and the dead of you, had the heart of the most Godwary man among you, that would add nothing to My kingdom. O My servants! If the first of you and the last of you, the men of you and jinn of you, the living of you and the dead of you, had the heart of the most depraved man among you, that would take nothing away from My kingdom.”
The “recompense” to which He alludes there is the love that He explains here. Beautiful doing is what Muṣṭafā said in answering Gabriel: “It is that you worship God as if you see Him.” Beautiful doing is the attribute of the self-watchful, the state of the finders, the station of the approving, and the mark of the friends. Love for God is their watchword and remembering God their blanket. God’s love is pouring down on them, and this pouring is like a sweetheart inside their spirit. From it the tree of happiness gives fruit.
