By Mawlana Junayd Makda Sahib
Memorise and practice a Hadeeth every week
from the collection of 40 Ahadeeth by Shaykhul Hadeeth Mawlana Muhammad Saleem Dhorat sahib Hafizahullah.
Hadeeth One
Actions and Correct Intentions
إِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّاتِ
Our Beloved Nabi ﷺ said,
“Actions are dependent on intentions”
Bukhari and Muslim
Explanation
A believer worships Allah Ta’ala alone therefore any good action he does will always be to please Allah Ta’ala alone.
From this Hadeeth, we learn to always keep our intentions correct, (i.e. to please Allah Ta’ala alone). If this is the intention, then there can be hope for reward. If however, the intentions are incorrect, for example, to show others our piety, or to gain wealth etc then the action will go to waste and will gain no rewards in the hereafter.
What we learn from this hadeeth?
1) Every action is judged by our intentions so we should check our intentions and always keep good intentions.
2) The most important intention is to make sure every action is done to please Allah Ta’ala alone
3) No action on its own is too little or too great. It is our intentions which make every action great.
4) The more good intentions we can include the more the rewards we will gain.
5) Making intentions to show others, or to gain praise makes us waste away all the good rewards of the Hereafter.
6) Actions we do as part of our day-to-day lives can also become a form of worship by way of changing our intention. For example going work to fulfil our duty of attending to the needs of our family etc. makes this work a form of worship.
7) The intention must remain correct before, during and after doing the action
Steps to keeping our intentions correct:
1) When doing any action, pause and think am I doing this to please Allah Ta’ala or for any other reason. Make sure it is only to please Allah Ta’ala alone.
2) While doing the action every little while, check to make sure the intention hasn’t changed. If the intention has changed, correct it and carry on.
3) Even after doing the action, the intention must be kept correct. If the intention at the start is to please Allah Ta’ala and then later we change it to gain praise we will lose the reward of that action.