نیت و اخلاص

Abu Kabsha (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “This Ummah is like four men. One of them Allah has given wealth and knowledge, so he acts upon his knowledge and spends his wealth in accordance with its due right. The second is a man to whom Allah has given knowledge but not wealth, and he says: If I too had wealth like that, I would spend it in the same way.” The Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The two are equal in reward. The third man is one to whom Allah has given wealth but not knowledge, and he spends it wrongfully; and the fourth man is one to whom Allah has given neither knowledge nor wealth, and he says: If I too had wealth I would spend it in the same way (in dissipation) — so these two are equal in sin.” (Ibn Majah)

“Intention” (niyyah), “resolve” and “purpose” are synonymous words, and it is a quality of the heart. It is a hidden thing, and none is aware of it except Allah — unlike action, which is apparent; and a hidden [good] deed attains excellence. Intention has a great role in a person's action; rather, intention alone is the criterion for whether a deed is accepted or rejected.
The meaning of a hadith is that a servant performs good deeds and the angels carry them up in the scrolls and they are placed before Allah, but Allah, the Lord of Might, does not accept those deeds, because by them he did not intend Allah. Then Allah has the reward of other deeds recorded for that person, even though he did not perform those deeds; Allah says: he had the intention of those works. In the above hadith too, on account of mere intention, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) made [people] share in the merits and demerits of a deed.
Some of the righteous have said: most works are small; intention makes them great. Some scholars have said that before an action one should seek the intention of the action, and as long as you intend good you remain in good. Keep doing good and virtue as long as you can, and when you tire of a deed or leave it, then intend it in your heart, because whoever intends a good deed is as though he does the good. However, if someone imagines that a sin too becomes a good deed through intention, that is a sheer mistake; rather, being against the Shariah, it will itself be a sin. Where the Shariah rewards good intention, it also lays down the condition that the deed too be in accordance with the Shariah.
The matter connected with intention is sincerity (ikhlas). A thing that is free of the admixture of any other thing is called pure (khalis), and to free a thing of adulteration is called ikhlas, that is, purifying. In the Shariah, ikhlas means that the intention be solely for Allah's pleasure and free of all admixtures. Like intention, sincerity too is an act of the heart, and only Allah, the Lord of Might, is aware of it. The opposite of sincerity is polytheism (shirk); one who is not sincere is a polytheist. Thus in Surah al-Kahf, verse 110, it is said:
“So whoever hopes to meet his Lord, let him keep doing righteous deeds and associate none in the worship of his Lord.”
Good intention and sincerity are two things such that if a person joins his life and his deeds to both of them, every act of his will become a means of reward for him. Eating is a need of every person for staying alive, but a believing servant should not eat merely to fill his stomach, but with the view that it will give him strength for Allah's worship — then this very eating becomes for him a means of reward. Likewise sleeping too is worship if one sleeps with the intention of gaining strength and rest for future worship; now this very sleep will earn him the rank of the sincere ones. In contrast, a deed that is purely virtuous, for example the learning and teaching of religious knowledge, but in which the person's intention is not Allah's pleasure — that very deed is a burden upon the soul.
May Allah grant us all the ability of good intention and sincerity in our deeds. Ameen.