Have what you Intended

`Umar bin al-Khattab (RA) reports that he heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saying,

`A´ishah (RAH) reports that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

These great hadiths encompass the whole religion: its foundations and its branches, its outer and its inner. The hadith of `Umar mentions the benchmark to measure deeds inwardly and the hadith of `A´ishah mentions the benchmark to measure deeds outwardly. They instruct us to have sincerity towards Allah and to follow the Messenger and these two are the prerequisites for the acceptance of every word and deed, the outer and inner. Therefore, it is the person who is sincere in deed and who follows the Messenger of Allah whose action is accepted, whoever does not meet these two conditions, or even one of them, his action is rejected and is subsumed by His saying,

The person who meets both pre-requisites falls under His saying,

Intention ( niyyah) refers to the motivation behind the act: to draw closer to Him and attain His good pleasure and reward. Therefore, two components must exist: an intention for the act itself and an intention for the one for whom the act is done.

With regards the intention for the act itself, purification in all its various types, salah, zakat, sawm, hajj;indeed all acts of worship cannot be considered to be valid unless someone first desires to do that action and has the actual intention for it. Therefore, one must have the intention to perform that specific action of worship. If the act of worship is itself of different types such as salah which is either obligatory, optional but specific, or optional but unrestricted: it is sufficient for the unrestricted that one just intend to pray, but as for the obligatory or the specific optional one must have the intention for that specific prayer, such as the intention to pray witr or the ratibah.

It is also necessary to distinguish habit from worship: one can bathe, for example, either to clean oneself, or because of the greater impurity ( al-hadath al-akbar), or because he has washed a dead body, or because it is the day of Jumu`ah; as such he must have the intention that he is bathing to remove the impurity or have the intention for the other recommended baths. In a similar fashion, a person could give money away as zakat, or for expiation ( kaffarah), or because he made an oath ( nadhr), or for sadaqah which is recommended, or as a gift: all of these must be accompanied with their specific intentions.

Included in this is trickery in transactions whereby a person undertakes a venture which outwardly seems legal but is in reality a form of interest, or to sidestep a obligation, or to do something prohibited. In this case it is his intention and objective that is taken into consideration and not what he is outwardly saying. This was stated by Shaykh al-Islam [ibn Taymiyyah]. Similarly, Allah has set the condition for accepting the wife back ( al-raj`ah) and in wills ( wasiyyah) that the intent not be to harm.

Included in this are all means that lead to their ends because the means take on the same rulings as the ends, the good and bad; and Allah knows the one who intends good from the one who intends bad.

With regards the intention for the One for whom the action is done, it is to have sincerity to Allah in everything that the servant brings and abandons, and in everything that he says and does. Allah, Most High, says,

It is upon the servant to have an all-encompassing intention in all his affairs: desiring Allah’s face, working to draw closer to Him, seeking His reward, being expectant of it, and fearing His punishment. This intention must be present in all his deeds and statements and, alongside this, the servant must have the ardent desire to make this sincerity a living reality and try his utmost to perfect it. He must repress all that would diminish it such as ostentation and desire for position and praise. If it happens that a person does acquire status and praise, he must ensure that this remains secondary and that the essential objective remains Allah’s face and seeking His reward without being distracted by the creation. Any worldly position or status that arises as a result of this would then be from the temporal rewards meted out to be believer.

His saying, “Of a surety all actions are but by their intentions,” means that the actions cannot come about except by intention and it is upon this that they revolve around. “And every person shall have only what he intended,” means that the intention of the servant will determine the merit, aberrance, perfection or shortcoming in the deed. Hence, whoever intends to do good and his objective is lofty – seeking to draw closer to Allah – for him is a complete reward. As a persons purity of intention and loftiness of objective decreases, so too does the reward. It was to exemplify this that the Prophet ﷺ proceeded to give an example that could be used as a basis for analogy to all affairs, “The one whose migration was for Allah and His Messenger, his migration was for Allah and His Messenger,”meaning he attained what he intended and has received its reward. “And the one whose migration was to attain some worldly lot or marry a woman, his migration was for what he made migrated for,”marriage has been specifically mentioned after the generalisation to emphasise the fact that all of this is worthless and of no real benefit. This same fact is emphasised in the hadith in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was asked about the one who fought to show his courage, or fought for nationalism, or fought to show his status: who has fought in the way of Allah? He ﷺ replied,

Allah, Most High, says concerning spending in charity,

The same applies to all deeds.

Deeds vary in degree and reward in accordance to the strength of faith and sincerity present in the heart. This is true to the point that anyone who has a truthful intention and does all that he can do enact the deed, he will get the reward of the deed [even if it turns out that he cannot perform it]. Allah, Most High, says,

The Sahih records that the Prophet ﷺ said,

He ﷺ also said

meaning their hearts were with you and they shared your reward. When the servant desires to do good but is unable to do it, his desire and intention are written as one complete reward. Being good to the creation through wealth, deed and speech is an example of goodness and the reward for this lies with Allah; however, the amount of reward is dependant upon the intention. Allah, Most High, says,

Bukhari records the hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ said,

Carefully consider how Allah has made righteous intention a means to provision and Allah’s repaying on his behalf, and an evil intention a means to waste and destruction!

Intention also has an important bearing on permissible and worldly matters. Whoever intends by his earnings, his worldly deeds and habits that they aid him in establishing the rights of Allah, in doing the obligations and recommendations, and he has this intention when eating, drinking, sleeping, resting and working: his habits are turned into acts of worship. Allah will bless him in his work and open for him such doors to goodness and provision that he could never have previously imagined. Whoever misses out on having this righteous intention, either due to ignorance or negligence, then let him blame no one but himself! The Prophet ﷺ said,

Hence we learn that this hadith covers all good. As such the believer who wishes to be successful must understand this hadith and make it his goal to act by it in all his affairs and at every time.

As for the of `A´ishah (RAH),

another version has,

this has an understanding derived from its explicit wording ( mantuq) and an understanding derived from its context ( mafhum).

Its explicit wording proves that every innovation introduced in the religion that has no basis for it in the Book or Sunnah is completely rejected. This is regardless of whether this innovation is in speech and thought such as the philosophical based innovations of the Jahmiyyah, Rafidah and the Mu`tazilah; or whether it be by doing new deeds not legislated by Allah and His Messenger. The people who do these innovations are blameworthy and the degree of blame varies in accordance to the severity of the innovation. Whoever informs us of something that Allah and His Messenger have not informed us of, or worships Him in way not legislated by Allah and His Messenger is an innovator.

As for the context, it proves that whoever does a deed that has been legislated by Allah and His Messenger – to worship Him with correct beliefs and righteous deeds – his deeds are accepted and his efforts are rewarded.

This hadith also proves that any act of worship that is performed in a fashion that has been prohibited is invalid. This is because it has not been legislated by the Shari`ah and the prohibition of something necessitates its invalidity; therefore every transaction that has been prohibited by the Shari`ah is useless and carries no weight.

Footnotes:

1. Bukhari #6953 and Muslim #1907

2. Bukhari #2697 and Muslim #1718

3. Bukhari #2810 and Muslim #1904 on the authority of Abu Musa al-Ash`ari

4. Bukhari #2996 on the authority of Abu Musa al-Ash`ari

5. Bukhari #2839 on the authority of Anas and a similar wording is found in Muslim #1911 on the authority of Jabir.

6. Bukhari #2387 on the authority of Abu Hurayrah

7. Bukhari #1295 and Muslim #1628 on the authority of Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas.

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