. J '-Ɵ  (cont.)

lbn Ajlaan said, "A deed is not useful unless accompanied by three things: awareness of Allah (taqwa), good intention and correctness of the deed."1 There is also another point that needs to be emphasized and that is that if the intention is actually existing, the good deed must follow. That is, there are many people who claim that they have good intentions while, at the same time, they are not applying the Quran and sunnah. This negates their claim that they have a good intention. The intention is the cause that brings about the act. If the intention is truly there, the act is forthcoming. Actually, the deeds may be, on an external level, seemingly good but in the heart there is no goodness. This is the case with the hypocrites who try their best to outwardly display good deeds.2 However, the opposite cannot be the case. Since actions are the result of intention, if there is a good intention in the heart and no obstacles are present preventing the deed, then the good deed must follow. If there is a sincere will and desire to obey Allah, the person will obey Allah. In general, there is no such thing as a person having the ability to obey Allah but instead disobeying Him while rightfully claiming that his intention is good. In this hadith, the Prophet (peace be upon him) has categorically denied this claimed situation. 1 Quoted in ibn Rajah, Jaami, vol. 1 , p. 7 1 . 2 A hypocrite may be able to hide his hypocrisy from many people but almost always there are signs or clues in his behavior that demonstrate his hypocrisy. 1 18 Hadith #1 : All Actions are but by Intentions . . . "Intention and Intention" Any deed performed with the sole intention of pleasing Allah which is also consistent with His shareeah is an act of worship or ibaadah. At the same time, though, there are some deeds that must be accompanied with an intention for them to be accepted by Allah. These deeds include, according to the majority opinion, ablution, ghusl, tayammum, prayers, zakah, fasts, pilgrimage, itikaaf and other acts of worship. For example, someone could go the entire day without eating due to lack of food or for health reasons but this would not be the same thing as fasting as an act of worship. Therefore, whenever anyone wishes to fast as an act of worship, one must first make the intention to perform that act of worship. Therefore, in order to distinguish the act of worship from any other customary act, the intention must be present in the heart of the person. Also, with respect to prayers and other acts of worship, some such deeds are obligatory while others are only voluntary. When someone stands to fulfill the obligatory prayer, he must have the intention that it is the obligatory prayernot a voluntary prayerbefore he begins the deed. Also, cleaning one's body may be done solely for the sake of becoming clean or it may be done with the intention of purifying oneself for the sake of worship. In this latter case, the act of cleaning itself is an act of worship (according to everybody except the Hanafis1) and, therefore, one must have the intention to purify oneself before doing so. There are some deeds whose validity is not in need of an intention. For example, cleaning one's clothing from impurities is a precondition for the prayer. If someone has a shirt that has some impurity on it and then throws it into a washing machine that physically removes the impurities present, the shirt will be permissible for use in the prayer even if the person did not have the intention to remove the impurity. That is, in a case like this, the intention is not a necessity.2 Same Acts, Different Intentions Later in this hadith, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "Thus he whose migration was for Allah and His Messenger, his migration was for Allah and His Messenger, and he whose migration was to achieve some worldly benefit or to take some woman in marriage, his migration was for that which he migrated." In these few words the Prophet (peace be upon him) described how the same deed can be a source of reward for some and possibly a source of punishment for others. 1 See al-Ashqar, Muqaasid, pp. 301-320. 2 lbn Taimiya (Majmoo, vol. 18, p. 258) states that some of the later scholars of the Shafi'ee and Hanbali schools of fiqh were of the opinion that one must have the intention to remove impurities. According to ibn Taimiya, this is an awkward or strange opinion. 1 19 Commentary on the Forty Hadith of al-Nawawi Therefore, the same act will be rewarded or punished differently by Allah due to the niyyah of the person.