The Nature of Intention

The intention of a person is not his utterance of the words, “I intend to do so and so.” It is an overflowing from the heart which runs like conquests inspired by Allah. At times, it is made easy, other times, difficult. A person whose heart is overwhelmingly righteous finds it easy to summon good intentions at most times. Such a person has a heart generally inclined to the roots of goodness which, most of the time, blossom into the manifestation of good actions. As for those whose hearts incline towards, and are overwhelmed by worldly matters, they find this difficult to accomplish and even obligatory acts of worship may become difficult and tiresome.

The Prophet ﷺ said: “Actions are only by intention, and every man shall only have what he intended. Thus, he whose hijra was only for Allah and His Messenger, his hijra was for Allah and His Messenger, and he whose hijra was to achieve some worldly benefit or to take some woman in marriage, his hijra was for that for which he made hijra.” (Bukhari and Muslim)

Imam ash-Shaf’I said: “This hadith is a third of knowledge.” The words, “actions are only by intention”, mean the deeds that which are performed in accordance with the sunnah are acceptable and rewarded if the intentions behind them were sincere. Likewise, the words, “every man shall only have what he intended”, mean that the reward for an action depends upon the intention behind it. So deeds which are apparently identical may differ, because the intentions behind them are different in degrees of goodness and badness, from one person to another.

Good intentions do not change the nature of forbidden actions. Worship and permissible actions can be turned into forbidden ones because of the intentions behind them, and permissible actions can become either good or bad deeds by intention; but wrong actions cannot become acts of worship, even with good intentions.

The fundamental principle should be the act is intended for the worship of Allah alone. If our intention is to show off, then these same acts of worship will in fact become acts of disobedience. As for permissible deeds, they all involve intentions – which can potentially turn them into excellence acts which bring man nearer to Allah and confer him the gift of closeness to Him.

Umar ibn al_Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “The best acts are doing what Allah has commanded, staying far away from what Allah has forbidden, and having sincere intentions towards what-ever Allah gas required of us.” (Tahdhib al-Asma’ li-Nawawi’, 1/173)

Yahya Ibn Abu Kathir said: “Learn about intentions, for their importance is greater than the importance of actions.”

Ibn Umar once hear a man who was putting on his ihram say: “O Allah! I intend to do the Hajj and Umrah.” So he said to him: “Is it not in fact the people whom you are informing your intentions? Does not Allah already know what is in your heart?” (Sahih, Ja’mi’l-‘Ulum wa’l-Hikam, p.19). It is because good intentions are exclusively the concern of the heart, that they should not be voiced during worship.

Taken from "The Purification of the Soul",  compiled from the works of Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali.