INTENSIONS

INTENSIONS   

My dear respected elders, brothers and sisters, assalaamualaikumwarahmatullahiwabarakatuh

To begin with hadith of the week, I have decided to choose hadith of intentions as the first hadith of discussion tonight in shaa Allah

Is narrated on the authority of Amirul Mu ' minin , Abu Hafs ' Umar bin al -Khattab, radiyallahu ' anhu, who said : I heard the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu ' alayhiwasallam, say :

"Actions are (judged ) by motives (niyyah ), 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. "

[Al- Bukhari&Muslim ]

This is one of the most, comprehensive hadith of Rasool(SAW). It touches upon every deed of Islam. Abu said said, 'the prophet encompassed all of the affairs of this world in one sentence, "whoever enters anything I yo this religion of ours that does not belong, will have it rejected"

And he encompassed all of the affairs of the hereafter in one sentence, "every action is based on it'sintention "

Imam Abu dawud stated that, the hadith is one half of islam. "It does encompasses half of knowledge"says Imam Shafi'. Meaning the religion concerns both what is external and internal. The deeds are the external aspect and the intentions are the internal aspects

To  summarize the circumstances behind the hadith, sawed ibnMansoor and Atabaranirecoreded on the authority if ibnmasuud concerning  a man who emigrated from Makkah to Madinah during the Hijrah for the sake of marrying someone and not for the sake of Islam

Noe to start with the content of the hadith....

The meaning of.إنما

The word implies emphasis and exclusiveness. So it should be translated to to mean verily or certainly.

This hadith therefore is translated as surely, all actions are judged by intentions. It is not "actions are but intentions

Giving an example in the noble Al Quran to buttress this point, we have surah At Tahreem, Vrs7

إِنَّمَاتُجْزَوْنَمَاكُنتُمْتَعْمَلُونَ

! You are being requited only for what you used to do.

"Surely you are being requited only for what you used to do"

Moving on with the second word  الاعمال

Used in it's plural state which also begins with  ال include all actions of the body and speech, obligatory and voluntary deeds, small and large deeds.

The word  النية  refers to by jurists as an intent in the heart that must be accompany and precede any act of worship.

According to ibntaimiyah ,the scholars agree that the place of the niyya, is in the heart or the conscience and it is not the tongue. Thus, making a statement is not the same thing as having an intention to do something. Therefore, the innovation of saying, for example, I have the intention to pray 2rakaats....  Is nonsensical. The prophet(SAW) never used to make such statements

With respect to intention, what matters is what is in the heart

وإنمالكلامرئمانوى

Every man shall have but that which he intended.

In this statement, there is once again the presence of exclusiveness. The first sentence is the cause and the second sentence is the consequence but not that, the second lays more emphasis on the first. The first one us cause in which the prophet(SAW) makes it clear that every action must have an action behind it. Every deed performed by Human while he is rational and act voluntarily must have an Intention. It is not possible for a rational, voluntarily acting person to perfor.  A deed without intention.

The consequence of that is in the prophet's words"and for everyone is what he intended(the pleasure of) Allah and the hereafter in your deeds, that will be achieved for you. If you intended this world, then you may achieve it or you may not.

The statement therefore seems to imply that, every man will only get from his deed what he intended. If he intended something good, then he will get good. If he intended evil, he will receive evil

Generally we have three categories of intentions. Pure and pious, neutral and negative intentions but due to limited time, we will not discuss these categories. Nevertheless, in any case, the person will get but what he intended.

There is also another point that needs to be emphasized and that is that,if the intention is actually existing, then the God deeds must follow. Thus there are many people who claimed that they have good intentions while at the same time, they aren't applying the Quram and the sunnah. This negates their claims that, they have good intention. The intention is the cause that brings about the act. If the intention is truly there, the act must be forthcoming

 فمنكانتهجرتهالياللهورسوله، فهجرتهاليالله، ورسوله، ومنكانتهجرتهلدنيايصيبها

He ho migrates to Allah and His messenger, his migration is to Allah and His messenger.

These statements show us that, we may have same acts but with different intentions.It therefore clearly describes to us how same deed can be a source of reward for some and possibly a course of punishment for others.

Now let's consider this situation. If someone mixes his intention for jihad with some other intention, but not for the sake of being seen, then his reward will be lessned but his deed may not be rendered void according to some of the later scholars.recorded in Muslim, "Our prophet(SAW) said; if a worrior received some booty, then one third of his rewards would have already been given to him, if he returns without any booty, then his reward will b complete in the hereafter.

Now let us end here by summarizing the entire hadith into lessons we have derived from it

1.Whoever intends to do a pious deed and due to reasons beyond his control, he fails to carry it out, he will still be rewarded.

2.deeds are not valid without intentions. An intention without a deed will b rewarded while deed without an intention is in vain.

3.the hadith directs us to be sincere in all our deeds and rituals so that we may attain rewards in thus world and the hereafter.

Lastly,*make every endeavor to purify your intention and sincerity for Allah(SWT)

This brings us to the end of the presentation tonight.

Wasalaikumuwarahmatullaahiwabarakatuh