Is it enough for one to have a chaste heart and to be benevolent in order to enter Paradise?

Every person or every society has its own understanding of “goodness” and “kindness”. It is “goodness” for some people to raise children to a high educational standard, or to be a member of a charity for some others, or to work for an animal-rights movement for others.

Deceiving themselves in this way, people try to escape their true responsibility. In fact, everyone well knows that on the Day of Reckoning he will be judged according to whether he followed the Qur’an or not. However, as he avoids following the commands of Allah, he pretends to be ignorant of this fact. One who does not run away from this responsibility and who accepts the reality that he is accountable according to Qur’anic criteria knows that the real meaning of “goodness” can only be found in the Qur’an since the Qur’an contains the commands of our Creator Allah. “Having a chaste heart” is not what one essentially needs in order to gain Paradise, but to strictly follow the Book which contains the commands of Allah. In other words, living in one’s own world, without causing any harm or being covetous of the property, wealth or honour of others does not qualify one for Paradise. In addition to these things, one also needs to possess other good traits and attributes that Allah has specified in the Qur’an.

Allah informs us what real goodness is and who the real Muslims are in a verse as follows:

It is not a virtue to turn your faces to the East or to the West. Rather, the truly virtuous are those who believe in Allah and the Last Day, the Angels, the Book and the Prophets, and who, despite their love for it, give away their wealth to their relatives and to orphans and the very poor, and to travellers and beggars and to set slaves free, and who establish prayer and pay alms; those who honour their contracts when they make them, and are steadfast in poverty and illness and in battle. Those are the people who are true. They are the people who guard against evil.  (Surat al-Baqara, 177)

The measure of goodness in the sight of Allah is explained with an example in another verse as follows:

Do you make the giving of water to the pilgrims and looking after the Masjid al-Haram the same as believing in Allah and the Last Day and striving in the Way of Allah? They are not equal in the sight of Allah. Allah does not guide wrongdoing people. (Surat at-Tawba, 19)

Those who believe and emigrate and strive in the Way of Allah with their wealth and themselves have a higher rank with Allah. They are the ones who are victorious. (Surat at-Tawba, 20)

Is it enough for one to have a chaste heart and to be benevolent in order to enter Paradise?