INTENTIONAL LIVING
By Rafet Khaliq
‘Oh Allah purify my heart of malice, my soul of the sins I’ve committed and purify my intentions for me- Ameen’
as Muslims our intentions should be to gain the pleasure of Allah SWT in all that we do, according to Imam Nawawi’s Forty Hadith, which states ‘Actions are according to intentions, and everyone will get what was intended’ (Bukhari, Muslim). The intention which is the ‘Niyyah’ refers to the spirit of doing deeds through which they may become religiously valid - sincere intentions turn permissible deeds into acts of worship. This process also highlights the connection between the physical actions and their spiritual consequences. Even though nobody else may understand us, and sometimes we are not correct in our actions even when our intentions were good, Allah SWT knows our true intentions and knowing this helps to bring peace within ourselves.
Intentions are the roots of every actions, they reflect the underlying motives of why we plan something, so even before setting goals, focus on what the intention for the goal is. Our intentions are formed in the heart and are aligned with our values. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said ‘....in our body there is a lump of flesh, if it is good, the entire body will be good, and if it corrupted, the entire body becomes corrupted, and that is the heart’ (Sahih Bukhari). Clearly the state of our hearts has a domino effect on our intentions, we must ensure our hearts are in healthy state as we set our intentions.
Our heart and mind are interconnected, therefore what we intend will influence our thoughts and then our actions.
The intention is our driver, without focused intention we go into autopilot, doing things just because we need to e.g. for survival, work, cook, our everyday mundane things, catching ourselves doing certain acts purely out of need or habit.
Let’s take when a person goes out to work for example, why are they working? Of course, we all need money to survive but how can we make it more intention based to gain more rewards..
Shifting the focus on why you work and align it with pure and certain intention as the starting point focusing on some of the points below.
- to please the Almighty
- to earn a halal income
- to provide food for the family
- to serve others/colleagues/clients/public
- to make a positive impact on society
- give in charity
One thing can have multiple intentions as the Sahabahs and Sheikhs did to gain multiple rewards.
When we tell our brain we intend to do something, our brain then looks for opportunities to fulfil it. When you live with intentional living it gives purpose, focus, drive, motivation, lifts the energy, the eagerness to achieve, productivity increases and you work more efficiently.
Intention can be filtered through every act that you do, the energy that goes in, impacts the journey you want to go on, keeps you pure. However along the way we can stumble, with blockages and diversion, which can take us off track, this is why it is advised to set intentions at the start of the act, then renew the intention in the middle which helps to give us a gentle nudge when the state of play in our heart may change and go astray - so being mindful of going off track, and at the end we seek forgiveness for any shortcoming that may have occurred throughout the action.
Author of ‘Living with intent’ - Malika Chopra said ‘Personally, I have found that when I state an intent, it provides an anchor for me. Being purposeful, we will often make choices and look for opportunities to achieve - it provides that anchor in our thinking and decision making’
Before you do your next task, bring focus to the intention behind the task and strive to fulfil it, may Allah SWT reward you for your intentions and may He add purpose to it ... Bismillah
#becomeyourbetterself
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