3. IT IS
INTENTION THAT COUNTS
Umar
ibn Al-Khattab r.a. reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and
blessings be upon him, said:
إِنَّمَا الْأَعْمَالُ
بِالنِّيَّةِ وَإِنَّمَا لِامْرِئٍ مَا نَوَى فَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ
وَرَسُولِهِ
فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ
وَرَسُولِهِ وَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ لِدُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا أَوْ امْرَأَةٍ يَتَزَوَّجُهَا
فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى مَا هَاجَرَ إِلَيْه (رواه
البخاري و مسلم)
Actions are (judged) by motives (intentions), so each man
will have what he intended. Thus, he whose
migration (hijrah)
was to Allah and His Messenger, his migration
is to Allah and
His Messenger; but he whose migration was for
some worldly
thing he
might gain, or for a wife he might marry, his
migration is to that for which he migrated.
(Reporter by Bukhari and Muslim)
This prophetic
tradition (ḥadīth) is so important that Imam al-Shāfi‘ī an Imam Aḥmad
ibn Ḥanbal said that it is one third of the knowledge of Islam; it is related
to about 70 topics of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). It is because any human
acquisition is either by his heart, his tongue or his limbs, and intention is
one of them.
Muslim scholars divide intention (niyyah) into two
categories:
intention in matters of worship, and intention in
worldly matters. Intention in matters of worship is used by Muslim jurists as
one of many conditions for the validity of worship. It is intention that makes
distinction between obligatory and recommended prayers. When you enter the
mosque to pray, while you are standing for prayer you make your intention
whether you are going to perform an obligatory prayer or a recommended one.
With regard to intention with worldly matters, Muslim
jurists have different views: The first view is that there is no need for
intention in matters of habitual actions, like drinking, eating, sleeping, and
wearing our clothes. The second view is that intention is included in every
action. If you eat to be full thanking Allah for his blessing, or in order to
make you strong in obeying Allah, you will be rewarded. If you wear clothes to
cover yourselves you will get reward. But if your intention is to show off and to
boast, then you will become sinful. Therefore, any habitual and ordinary
action, if it is accompanied with intention, will turn into an act of devotion,
a religious observance in which you will be rewarded. If you build a house to
protect your family you will be rewarded for it. The Prophet s.a.w. said
to Sa‘d ibn Mālik in a long tradition, as follows:
...وَلَسْتَ بِنَافِقٍ نَفَقَةً تَبْتَغِي بِهَا
وَجْهَ اللَّهِ إِلَّا آجَرَكَ اللَّهُ بِهَا
حَتَّى اللُّقْمَةَ تَجْعَلُهَا
فِي فِي امْرَأَتِكَ ... (رواه البخاري)
…
nothing you spend seeking Allah’s pleasure, except
that He will reward you for it, even the
morsel you put
into your wife’s mouth … (Reported by Bukhari)
“Actions are (judged) by
motives (intentions)”, means actions are accepted or rejected, right or
wrong are based on intention. The expression “so each man will have what
he intended” means the reward of action is based on
intention. Therefore, in order to get reward for our good action we have to
make good intention, namely, sincerity for Allah’s sake, not as a show-off. In
a ḥadīth qudsī (namely, the idea is from Allah, but the wording is from
the Prophet), the Prophet s.a.w. said, that Allah the Almighty said:
أَنَا أَغْنَى
الشُّرَكَاءِ عَنِ الشِّرْكِ مَنْ عَمِلَ عَمَلاً أَشْرَكَ فِيهِ مَعِى
غَيْرِى تَرَكْتُهُ
وَشِرْكَهُ (رواه مسلم)
I am the most in not needing association,
whoever acted
an action associating
Me (with something else), I would
leave him with his associate (Reported by Muslim)
If someone prays not for the sake of Allah, but as
show off, hypocrisy, then his prayer will not be accepted by Allah. Allah said:
إِنَّ الْمُنَافِقِينَ يُخَادِعُونَ اللَّهَ وَهُوَ خَادِعُهُمْ وَإِذَا قَامُوا
إِلَى الصَّلَاةِ قَامُوا
كُسَالَى يُرَاءُونَ النَّاسَ وَلَا
يَذْكُرُونَ اللَّهَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا (النساء:142)
Verily,
the hypocrites seek to deceive Allah, but it is He
Who deceives hem. And when they stand up for
the prayer,
they stand with laziness
and to be seen of men, and the
do not remember Allah but a little (Q. 4:142)
The Prophet s.a.w. said:
مَنْ صَلَّى يُرَائِي فَقَدْ
أَشْرَكَ وَمَنْ صَامَ يُرَائِي فَقَدْ أَشْرَكَ
وَمَنْ تَصَدَّقَ يُرَائِي فَقَدْ أَشْرَكَ
(رواه أحمد)
Whoever prays to be seen has become a polytheist,
whoever fasts to be seen has become a
polytheist, and
whoever gives charity to bee seen has become
a polytheist (Reported
by Ahmad)
Therefore, in order to be safe from
Allah’s punishment in the Hereafter, we
have to be sincere in our intention, that all our deeds are for Allah’s sake, and
all our actions are a kind of devotion and obedience to Him. Allah says:
قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَنَا بَشَرٌ مِثْلُكُمْ يُوحَى إِلَيَّ أَنَّمَا
إِلَهُكُمْ إِلَهٌ وَاحِدٌ فَمَنْ كَانَ يَرْجُو لِقَاءَ
رَبِّهِ فَلْيَعْمَلْ عَمَلًا
صَالِحًا وَلَا يُشْرِكْ بِعِبَادَةِ رَبِّهِ أَحَدًا (الكهف:110)
Say (O Muhammad), “I am only a man like you. I t has been
revealed
to me that your God is One God (Allah). So whoever
hopes
for the Meeting with his Lord, let him work
righteousness and associate none as a partner
in the
worship of his Lord.” (Q. 18:110)
While we are performing our devotion
with right intention, when we change our intention, then our devotion will
become unacceptable, like the intentions and the acts of hypocrites. However,
if we made an extra intention, for example, the imam bows or prostrates longer
than usual to be seen as a pious man by his friends or people in the
congregation, then this is a minor shirk (idolatry), but the prayer is
still valid and sound. There will be no reward for doing longer prostration or
bowing, as it is not purely for Allah’s sake. However, if after performing the
prayer, for example, and someone comes to the imam and praises him, then he
wants to do the prayer of the khuṭbah better than
before, for Allah’s sake, there will be nothing wrong with it, because the
praise came after performing the prayer.
There are some good deeds where besides the reward in the Hereafter, the reward
in this world is also mentioned. For example, Anas ibn Mālik and Abū Hurayrah
narrated that the Prophet s.a.w. said:
مَنْ سَرَّهُ أَنْ
يُبْسَطَ لَهُ فِي رِزْقِهِ أَوْ يُنْسَأَ لَهُ فِي أَثَرِهِ
فَلْيَصِلْ رَحِمَهُ (رواه البخاري و مسلم(
Whoever wishes to have his sustenance increased
or his life span extended,
he shall keep his good kinship
relationship (Reported
by Bukhārī and Muslim)
Shaykh al-Albānī’s commentary on this ḥadīth
is as follows:
The ostensible meaning of this ḥadīth is that
Allah through
His Wisdom has made good kinship relationship as
the motive
for long life, just like good character and
good neighbourhood
as mentioned in some
sound ḥadīths. But this is not contradictory
to what is known in religion by necessity that
age has been fixed,
because this is considered final. It is like bliss and misery which
because this is considered final. It is like bliss and misery which
have been fixed for every person, and there
has to be legal
reason for them. As faith increases with
obedience and
decreases with
disobedience, this does not contradict
what has been written in the Preserved
Tablet.”
(صحيح الأدب المفرد
,1 / 24)
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn
Taymiyyah says that there are two kinds of appointed time of death: the
absolute one which is known by Allah only, and the restricted one. Referring
to the above verse he says that Allah ordered the angel to write his appointed
time of death, and said: “If he keeps his good kinship relationship I would
increase it,” but the angel did not know whether it would happen so that his
appointed time of death would be increased or not. It was Allah Who knows the
final decision which does not come earlier or later.
( مجموع الفتاوى 8 / 517) .
Another
example is that the Prophet s.a.w. said:
مَنْ قَتَلَ قَتِيلاً لَهُ عَلَيْهِ بَيِّنَةٌ فَلَهُ
سَلَبُهُ (رواه البخاري و مسلم)
Whoever kills a
person (in the battlefield) with
indisputable evidence, the booty (he left)
will be for
him (Reported
by Bukhari and Muslim)
Since the worldly reward is mentioned to incite the Muslims to go to the
battlefield to defend Islam besides the reward promised in the Hereafter, it is
possible to have double intention here: to obtain booty if kills the enemy, and
to obtain martyrdom if he is killed. But if no worldly reward is mentioned,
then only one intention is allowed: to defend Islam. Similarly, if we keep good
kinship relationship for the sake of Allah, and at the same time we expect the
worldly reward with prosperity and long life, this is also possible. If our
intention is more towards the reward in the Hereafter than the worldly reward,
then we shall get more reward from it, and vice versa.
If we go to Makkah with the intention to perform the pilgrimage, but at
the same time we bring some goods to sell to assist us in our travel expense,
there is nothing wrong with it, as the main intention is the pilgrimage, while
trade is only a means to assist us in our expense. But if our main intention is
for trade, while pilgrimage is only our secondary intention, then our reward for
our pilgrimage is based on the degree of our intention for it.
As the main motive or intention for
going to the battlefield is to defend Islam, and not to gain booty, Imam Mālik
did not like the leader of the army to tell his solders about the booty that
they may get, so that they would not forget the main intention, to defend
Islam.
The ḥadīth continues with the Prophet’s statement
that whoever migrates for some
worldly things, namely business or for a wife he might marry, then there will
be no reward for his migration, as it is intention that counts. It is like a
man gives charity for Allah’s sake, another man did the same, but to let people
know how generous he was, and another person did the same, so that the
recipient of charity would stop bothering him. The reward is only for the
person who gave charity for Allah’s sake.
In
another ḥadīth the Prophet s.a.w. encouraged us to seek knowledge
and wealth with good intention. He said:
إِنَّمَا الدُّنْيَا لِأَرْبَعَةِ نَفَرٍ عَبْدٍ رَزَقَهُ
اللَّهُ مَالًا وَعِلْمًا فَهُوَ يَتَّقِي فِيهِ رَبَّهُ وَيَصِلُ فِيهِ
رَحِمَهُ وَيَعْلَمُ لِلَّهِ
فِيهِ حَقًّا فَهَذَا بِأَفْضَلِ الْمَنَازِلِ وَعَبْدٍ رَزَقَهُ اللَّهُ عِلْمًا وَلَمْ
يَرْزُقْهُ
مَالًا فَهُوَ صَادِقُ النِّيَّةِ يَقُولُ لَوْ أَنَّ
لِي مَالًا لَعَمِلْتُ بِعَمَلِ فُلَانٍ فَهُوَ بِنِيَّتِهِ فَأَجْرُهُمَا
سَوَاءٌ وَعَبْدٍ رَزَقَهُ
اللَّهُ مَالًا وَلَمْ يَرْزُقْهُ عِلْمًا فَهُوَ يَخْبِطُ فِي مَالِهِ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ
لَا يَتَّقِي
فِيهِ رَبَّهُ وَلَا يَصِلُ فِيهِ رَحِمَهُ وَلَا يَعْلَمُ لِلَّهِ فِيهِ حَقًّا فَهَذَا بِأَخْبَثِ
الْمَنَازِلِ وَعَبْدٍ
لَمْ يَرْزُقْهُ اللَّهُ
مَالًا وَلَا عِلْمًا فَهُوَ يَقُولُ لَوْ أَنَّ لِي مَالًا لَعَمِلْتُ فِيهِ بِعَمَلِ
فُلَانٍ فَهُوَ بِنِيَّتِهِ
فَوِزْرُهُمَا سَوَاءٌ (رواه الترمذي و
أحمد)
This world is for four kinds of people only: a
man endowed by
Allah with wealth and knowledge with which he
fears his Lord,
keeps his good
kinship relationship, and knows that Allah has
rights on him, and this is the highest
position; a man given by
Allah knowledge, not wealth, but he has good
intention, and
says, “had I wealth like so-and-so has, I
would have done like
what so-and-so did,
and he is sincere in his intention, then the
reward for both of them will be equal; a man
given by Allah
wealth and not knowledge, so that he will be
brought down
with his wealth
unknowingly, and will not fear Allah with it,
and he will not keep good kinship
relationship, and he does
not know Allah’s right on him, and this is the
worst position;
and a servant who is given by Allah neither wealth nor
knowledge, and he says that had he wealth he
would have
done the same with
what so-and-so did, and because
of this intention both (the rich without
knowledge
and the poor) will bear the same sin.
(Reported by Tirmidhi and
Ahmad)
In conclusion: in doing things with
good intention we shall get reward, without intension, there will be no reward,
and with bad intention we will become sinful.
(CIVIC, 24
July, 2015)
المراجع:
المكتبة الشاملة
الشيخ عطية محمد
سالم. شرح الأربعين النووية: المكتبة الإلكترونية
