HEY HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY INTENTION????!!!
Brothers and sisters in Islam!
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
I was discussing the matter of ‘INTENTION’ with a brother and I wrote in detail about it, thought of sharing with my other Islamic family members as well
Now let us see in depth the matter of intention:
Sorry to say the matter of intention is not as it seems. We have a common belief among us; we think, anything which is done is basically based on the purification of your intention and for that, people do a lot and when you ask them about it, they say, "how do you know my intention?"
Now brother as far as the matter of intention is concerned it is important to understand 2 important things:
1. The first important thing is, sometimes a person does something with a good intention but the action he does (or the way he chooses) comes out to be the wrong. For example a person arranges a Milaad meeting (or any other innovation)… what is his intention??? Good or bad?? Of course good but the path he chose or the action he did became a sin for him isn’t it? So it is important that even the actions are to be judged not just intention… similarly someone kills a person in an accident, now of course no one intends to do such a thing but even then he has to pay the penalty even in Islam… this also proves that not ONLY intention is the only thing we ought to look forward to, rather there are much more….
However we cannot claim anything but the matter of intention is solely with Allah SWT so only He would judge such things but for Dunya we would apply the ruling on appearance…!
2. One of the well-known rulings of Shariah which must be kept in mind and is denoted as اجراء الاحكام علي الظاهر meaning the ruling is applied on the appearance of the act (not the intention)… there are several evidences from where this rule is derived:
فان تابوا واقاموا الصلاة فخلوا سبيلهم * التوبة 5
If they repent and establish prayer, leave their paths...
Similarly it is narrated by Ibn e Umar R.A:
أمرت أن أقاتل الناس حتى يشهدوا أن لا إله إلا الله ، وأن محمداً رسول الله ، ويقيموا الصلاة ، ويؤتوا الزكاة ، فإذا فعلوا ذلك عصموا مني دماءهم وأموالهم إلا بحق الإسلام ، وحسابهم على الله تعالى )) متفق عليه
Prophet of Allah SAW said: Im ordered to fight with people until they testify that there is no (true) lord except Allah and indeed Muhammad SAW is His messenger and they establish prayers and pay Zakah, and if they do that, they have saved from me their blood, wealth except the right of Islam, and the accountability of latter is on Allah SWT.
Similarly it is narrated by Abu Abdullah Tariq:
سمعت رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم يقول : (( من قال لا إله إلا الله وكفر بما يعبد من دون الله ؛ حرم ماله ودمه ، وحسابه على الله تعالى )) رواه مسلم
(With almost the same meaning)
Similarly Imam Ibn e Taimiyyah (R.A) and many scholars from Salaf have discussed the rule thoroughly…
In the above Ahadith and verses, it is definite, that people are to be judged by the appearance in Dunya regardless of their intention. As Prophet SAW said, the matter of rights of Islam (related to faith, etc) would be on Allah… The matter of intention would be dealt by Allah SWT only not us…!
This is what is meant by the well-known Hadith:
Actions are judged by intentions. (Bukhari & Muslim)
In this the judge would be Allah, not us, Allah will judge actions based on intentions not us…!
Precisely, if a person is doing something, regardless of his intention, we would apply the rule which is followed by the action according to Shariah… For example, a person steals something from a person and he is caught, now he would be sentenced to punishment by the Islamic Law no matter what his intention was, may be it was just a joke or it might be some other good purpose in his intention… So he can argue that my intention was not bad, but it won’t be accepted as this rule is clear اجراء الحكم علي الظاهر. Same is the case with a girl who does not wear Hijaab, she might argue that my intention is never to attract people or boys and she might be right but we won’t consider her modest because we do not know what is in her heart….! Therefore it is not in any case acceptable… furthermore; as in the above Hadith it is clear that if they do the things mentioned, they would be leftover regardless of their intention…!To say that the matter is of intention so we do not have any problem, is unacceptable… because we can’t just base everything on intention. We ought to judge from the appearance…!
As for the summary I would like to quote what Sheikh Saleh Al Usaimeen said:
اعلم أن العبرة في الدنيا بما في الظواهر ؛ اللسان والجوارح ، وأن العبرة في الآخرة بما في السرائر بالقلب .
فالإنسان يوم القيامة يحاسب على ما في قلبه ، وفي الدنيا على ما في لسانه وجوارحه ،
Know that in Dunya things are measured by their appearance; the tongue and body parts, and indeed in Aakhirah, things would be measured by the intentions in heart.
So a person would be accountable on the day of judgment for what he had in his heart and in Dunya on his tongue and body parts.
Moreover Sheikh said:
فالواجب إجراء الناس على ظواهرهم ؛ لأننا لا نعلم الغيب ، ولا نعلم ما في القلوب ، ولا يكلف الله نفساً إلا وسعها، وقد قال النبي عليه الصلاة والسلام: ((إنما أقضي بنحو ما أسمع))
It is compulsory to apply (the ruling) on the appearances, because we do not know Ghaib (unseen) and we do not know what is in hearts and no soul is responsible except for what is in his control and indeed the Prophet of Allah SAW said:
“I judge according to what to what I hear!”
والله اعلم!
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