THE EXCELLENCE OF INTENTION

THE EXCELLENCE OF INTENTION

The Prophet (saw) said: “Actions are only by intention, and every man shall only have what he intended. Thus he whose hijra was for Allah and was for Allah and His Messenger, his hijra was for Allah and His Messenger, and he whose hijra was to achieve some worldly benefit or to take some woman in marriage, his hijra was for that for which he made hijra.” ( Bukhari & Muslim )

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER :

1- The intention of a person is not his utterance of the words, “I intend to do so and so.” It is an overflowing from the heart which runs like conquests inspired by Allah. At times it is made easy, at other times, difficult. A person whose heart is overwhelmingly righteous finds it easy to summon good intentions at most times. Such a person has a heart generally inclined to the roots of goodness which, most of the time, blossom into the manifestation of good actions. As for those whose hearts inclide towards and are overwhelmed by worldy matters, they find this difficult to accomplish and even obligatory acts of worship may become difficult and tiresome.

2- Imam ash-Shaf’i said: “This hadith is a third of all knowledge.” The words, “actions are only by intention”, mean that deeds which are performed in accordance with the sunnah are only acceptable and rewarded if the intentions behind them were sincere. It is like the saying of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, “Actions depend upon their outcome.”

3- Likewise, the words, “every man shall only have what he intended”, mean that the reward for an action depends upon the intention behind it. After stating this principle, the Prophet (saw) gave examples of it by saying, “thus he the Prophet (saw) gave examples of it by saying, “Thus he whose hijra was for Allah and His Messenger, his hijra was for Allah and His Messenger, and he whose hijra was to achieve some worldly benefit or to take some woman I nmarriage, his hira was for that for which he made hijra.” So deeds which are apparently identitcal may differ, because the intentions behind them are different in degrees of goodness and badness, from one person to another.

4- Good intentions do not change the nature of forbidden actions. The ignorant should not misconstrue the meaning of the hadith and think that good intentions could turn forbidden actions into acceptable ones. The above saying of the Prophet (saw) specifically relattes to acts of worship and permissible actions, not to forbidden ones. Worship and permissible actions can be turned into forbidden ones because of the intentions behind them, and permissible actions can become either good or bad deeds by intention; but wrong actions cannot become acts of worship, even with good intentions. When bad intentsions are accompanied by flaws in the actions themselves, then their gravity and punishment are multiplied.

5- Any praiseworthy act must be rooted in sound intentions; only then could it be deemed worthy of reward. The fundamental principle should be that the act is intended for the worship of Allah alone. If our intention is to show off,then these same acts of worship will in fact become acts of disobedience. As for permissible deeds, they all involve intentions — which can potenitally turn them into excellent acts which bring a man nearer to Allah and confer on him the gift of closeness to Him. WALLAHU’ALAM