What is Your Intention?

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends,

I pray that you are well.

If somebody says to you, "I love you," but there is no expression of this on the actions, then that love is not really in the heart. What then is the worth of that love? None, because the worth of everything is the heart which expressed itself through action. Our actions is the world of expression where what is truly in the heart manifest.

Likewise, the actions in Islam--like prayer, fasting, charity, hajj, teaching and studying, have a two-way connection with the heart. These actions are where the heart expresses itself. If somebody says, "my heart has the love of God," but there is no expression of this on the actions, then that meaning is not really in the heart. Actions are also the realm of transformation because the heart changes in response to these actions.

Islam is the religion of the heart and everything we do, its fruit is reflected in the heart and the heart is the worth in every human being.

"A Day when neither wealth nor sons benefit, except he who brings to Allah a sound heart." Quran Shu'araa 26:88-89

"Verily Allah does not look at your bodies nor to your forms; but rather He looks at your hearts." (Muslim)

Every prayer, every fasting, every charity, every hajj, etc. is not the same with its worth to Allah. If my 2 rak'as of prayer and other person's 2 rak'as of prayer aren't the same, I can't judge anybody. It is a very humbling realization and it changes the focus to the quality of our actions.

Works don't have any significance except through the intentions that fuel that work. All you get out of that action is what you intended.

The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Actions are only by intentions and each man shall have only that he intended."

The hijrah (emigration) of Islam is the emigration of the Muslims from Makkah to Madinah. These were the people who left behind everything--their families, wives, children, clans, homes, furniture, animals, money, wealth, business, status and good name, to be with the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, and to practice their religion without persecution. Even this action, so great and so central to the support of Islam, depends on the intention which you blow into it. It is even more so with any other action. .

The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, continued, "Thus, whoever his migration is for Allah and His Messenger, Allah bless him and grant him peace, then his migration is for Allah and His Messenger, Allah bless him and grant him peace."

It was the sincerity and purity, to please Allah, to support the Messenger, Allah bless him and grant him peace, to be with them, to live life for them, and that was the drive to leave everything behind. So the outcome is the migration is for Allah and His Messenger, Allah bless him and grant him peace.

The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, continued, "And he whose migration was to achieve some worldly benefit or to take some woman in marriage, his migration was to that for which he migrated."

The reward you get from your actions is commensurate with your intentions. The scholars tell themselves and the world to look to our hearts before we engage in any action because if our hearts are ruined, that action is ruined.

The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, find it worth making the explicit mention about the opposite sex in the hadith. Indeed, the temptation of the opposite sex can affect one's intention of doing or going to Islamic activities. In our times, we have Islamic events and activities that people go to. The temptation of the opposite sex can ruin our Islamic activities if the intention is other than for Allah. So watch your intentions when you go to the masjid, Islamic conventions and events. You have to fight the temptations.

Through intention mundane activities transform to worship. These actions can weigh down the scale of good deeds. So learn the intentions and pay attention to your intentions because it is further reaching than the action itself.

May Allah purify our intentions in all our actions. Ameen. Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam