There is nothing wrong with saying in du‘aa’: “O Allah, accept from us our righteous deeds”

I heard a shaykh saying that it is not permissible to say, “O Allah, accept from us our righteous deeds”, because that may imply that Allah could accept evil deeds from us, and Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, is Good and does not accept anything but that which is good; and it is more correct to say “O Allah, accept from us our deeds”. Is this correct?.

Praise be to Allaah.
There is nothing wrong with saying in du‘aa’: “O Allah, accept from us our righteous deeds” and there is nothing objectionable in this from a shar‘i point of view. Rather the wording and meaning of this supplication are sound, because Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, accepts righteous deeds and does not accept bad deeds.

Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning):

“That Allah may reward them according to the best of their deeds, and add even more for them out of His Grace”

[al-Noor 24:38]

“They are those from whom We shall accept the best of their deeds”

[al-Ahqaaf 46:16].

What is meant by “the best of their deeds” is their good, righteous deeds, because they are the best of what they do. They may do permissible things and other things, but the reward is only for good deeds, as Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“So that Allah may expiate from them the evil of what they did and give them the reward, according to the best of what they used to do”

[al-Zumar 39:35].

Tafseer al-Sa‘di, p. 569

Moreover, when a person asks Allah to accept his righteous deeds from him, it doesn’t occur to him that he may also ask Allah to accept his bad deeds from him; rather he says the word righteous to highlight the reason for acceptance, which is the righteousness of the deed, and this is correct linguistic usage in Arabic, for example in the verse in which Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“And whoever invokes (or worships), besides Allâh, any other ilâh (god), of whom he has no proof, then his reckoning is only with his Lord. Surely! Al-Kâfirûn (the disbelievers in Allâh and in the Oneness of Allâh, polytheists, pagans, idolaters) will not be successful”

[al-Mu’minoon 23:117].

Al-‘Allaamah Muhammad al-Ameen al-Shanqeeti (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

There is no difference of opinion among the scholars concerning the fact that the words here, “of whom he has no proof” do not imply the opposite. It is not correct for anyone to say that if the one who worships another god alongside Him has any proof for that then there is nothing wrong with it, because it is impossible for there to be any proof for worshipping another god alongside Him; rather the overwhelming and definitive evidence indicates that there is only One Who is deserving of worship, and it is not possible for there to be any proof to justify worshipping anything else at all.

That is because this phrase “of whom he has no proof” describes reality, because they call upon the other god without any proof. So this is just stating the fact and it is not suggesting that there could be any proof because there is definitely no proof at all.

Another example from the Qur’aan is the verse in which Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“Let not the believers take the disbelievers as Awliya’ (supporters, helpers) instead of the believers,”

[Aal ‘Imraan 3:28].

This was revealed concerning some people who took the Jews as friends and supporters instead of the believers. The words “instead of the believers” is describing what really happened, and it cannot be interpreted as meaning that if the believers took some disbelievers as friends alongside believers, it would be acceptable, because it is well known that it is forbidden for the believers to take the disbelievers as friends and supporters in all cases. End quote.

Adwa’ al-Bayaan, 5/364

To sum up, it is not permissible for anyone to speak about the religion of Allah without knowledge or insight, and thus take on a task that he is not qualified for, of which he has no knowledge, and stir up among the Muslims views that cannot be approved of by any scholar of sharee‘ah. Rather what is required is to adhere to the Qur’aan and Sunnah and to teach the people the clear issues of Islam, and leave everything else to specialist scholars. The scholars are still using this supplication in their books and speeches, for example the speech of Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) in which he says:
And importantly& note that we want to discourse and share with you it is about Quran reading and doing Quran recitation online to appreciate it, Ramadan is the month when the mind blowing Holy Quran  has been brought out. A miracle by the Godhead of the worlds, Allah (SWT) Should we not spiritualize him by reading Quran the talent he has sent down for us and we should learn Arabic Quran by heart to have the power of it and we as Moslem should try to Learn Quran with translation to comprehend it wile we do Quran memorization and let our heart fill will teardrops of glory and wash away our sins in the month of Ramadan many people teach quran and we should participate in teaching quranas much as we could. important note to before starting to to read Koranafter social intercourse or menstrual bleeding one must not touch the holy Quran or do quran recitation and also not do quran memorization until after bathing non-Muslim should not handle the sacred writing, but may hear to Quran online. Based upon all these things in your thoughts when one is not reading or reciting holy Quran it must be closed and stored in nice and clean situation, it should never be placed on floor or in a privy and Muslim will require to focus on reading quran the tajweed  quran and its patterns with a proper institute.