Praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the worlds. May the peace and blessings of Allaah be upon Muhammad. His last Messenger, his household, his companions and all those who follow him till the Last Day.
The Basis Of Action
Intention is the basis of every action. Narrated Umar bin AI Khattab (RA): Allaah's Messenger (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said. "The reward of deeds depends upon the intention and every person will get the reward according to what he has intended. So whoever emigrated for Allah and His Messenger, then his emigration was for Allaah and His Messenger. And whoever emigrated for worldly benefits or for a woman to marry, his emigration was for what he emigrated for. "(Bukhari) Thus. there is at least one reason behind our every action; sweet is that act of ibaadah [worship] for which the reason is to seek the Pleasure of Allaah and wasted is the deed that is done for other than that! In lslaam, we get rewards even if we fail to complete a certain work.
As long as the intention was positive & pure. Likewise. we can miss rewards, even though we have completed the work. if our intention was negative & impure. Hence; every act for which reward is sought from Allaah must be accompanied with intention good, pure and sincere.
Reward For Good lntention
There are so many benefits of having good intentions. For example, a person wants to become a doctor. If that person is asked "why are you becoming a doctor?" He/she might reply To make good money .." or To get a respectable job" etc. But if that person says "I want to become a doctor so I could help poor sick people. "he or she could be getting good rewards for this intention. So it is with our acts of ibaadah, their rewards come only when our intentions are good and sincere.
Narrated Jundub (RA) :The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said; "He who lets the people hear of his good deeds intentionally to win their praise. Allah will let the people know his real intention (on the Day of Resurrection) and he who does good things in public to show off and win the praise of the people. Allah will disclose his real intention (and humiliate him). "(Bukhari) Having good intention teaches us to think positively and stick to our aim.
Our purpose should be to please Allaah and be grateful to him by devoting our worship solely to Him. Making intentions before any work also reminds us to focus our attention at work; so the mind does not wander in salah nor does it habour doubts in the act of worship.
Finally,positive intentions make us sincere. Intention + Attention = Ikhlaas [Sincerity]
Truly, only Allaah knows best what is in our hearts but we can try our best to perfect our intentions by making them good, pure and sincere.
Narrated Zayd ibn Thabit (RA): The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said. "If anyones intention is to seek the hereafter Allah will place his sufficiency in his heart and order his affairs, and the world willcome to him submissively; but if anyone's intention is to seek worldly good Allaah will place poverty before him and disorder his affairs and only so much of it as has been ordained for him will come to him." (Tirmidhi) When we pay attention to the intention behind each act of ibaadah, then we will strive to make them good pure and sincere. We open this New Year 1428 AH with a focus on Ikhlaas; perhaps we may all ponder over our intentions as we serve Allaah. And Allaah is our Source of help!
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited