SINCERE INTENTION

In the name of Allah Ta'ala, the most gracious the most merciful,

Sincerity is an important quality that one must have. A Muslim must always be sincere with regard to their deen and the actions they perform. My brothers and sisters we should not be doing actions to please our fellow human beings. Pleasing the eyes of the people will not be of any help on the day of Qiyamah. My brothers and sisters think to yourself, who do we have to make happy? The creations or the Creator? Will it help us if we please the people and make people think we are good?

Our sole purpose when we do something should be to please Allah Ta'ala only. We need to be smart, and not like those people who are blinded by this world and think this world is everything. As Muslims we should know that this life is only for a moment so make it a moment of obedience to Allah Ta'ala! Don't try to impress people with your actions for it will not be of any help to us. Yes, people may think you are good, but does it matter what they think? No. If Allah Ta'ala is displeased with us, then no matter how happy people are with us we will be doomed, so we need to have sincere intentions in whatever actions we are doing.

Being sincere means you have to be strong in your imaan. The following is a quote that comes to my mine, “Be who you are not what people want you to be. What’s the point of trying to impress people in this life? For on the Day of Qiyamah no one will come to your aid but your good deeds, learn to be sincere with yourselves and work towards perfecting your Deen not perfecting your image for people to love you. Remember that a time will come where this life will finish but the life of the hereafter is forever, if you are clever then perfect your imaan not your image”.

We must realise that this life is for a moment only so make it a moment of obedience and sincerity towards Allah Ta'ala. On the day of Qiyamah there will be three people that will come, one was a fighter, who fought numerous battle and died in the path of Allah Ta'ala, the second one was a rich man who spent most of his wealth in the path of Allah Ta'ala and the third one was a scholar who use his knowledge for the sake of Islam. Allah Ta'ala will say to the angels to throw them into the Hell fire. They will ask why and then Allah Ta'ala will tell them that you only did these actions so that in the eyes of people you would be regarded as great and you didn’t do nothing for my sake, so Jahannam is your abode. From this story we can see the importance of being sincere. Our intention should be to please Allah Ta'ala only not to please people.

The Prophet Muhammad (sallahu alaihi wasalaam) said: “The rewards of deeds depend upon the intentions, and every person will get the reward according to what he has intended.” - 'Umar bin Al-Khattab (radiallahu anhu), Vol. 8, Book 78, Number 680

We can see from that hadith that if our intention is to please Allah Ta'ala while doing good actions then Alhamdulillah we will be rewarded according to our intention but if our intention is to please people then we should change our intention and we should be sincere and make sure our intention is to please Allah Ta'ala only. We should be clever and not foolish to think that pleasing people will help us towards achieving a better hereafter, we should realise that this life is not permanent and of course we can work towards having a good life in this world but at the same time we should work twice as hard to achieve a better hereafter and having sincere intentions will Insh'Allah help us.

Hazrat Fuzail ibn Iyyaz rahmatullahi alayh: “If you can get by without being known, then do so. What does it bother you that people will not praise you, and what does it bother you that you may be blameworthy in the sight of people if in the Sight of Allah you are praiseworthy?”

I make dua that Allah Ta'ala makes all of us sincere in our intention and grant us Jannah through his Rahmah. Ameen