عَنْ عُمَرَ بْنِ الخَطَّابِ قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللهِ ﷺ: «إِنَّمَا الْأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّةِ. وَإِنَّمَا لِامْرِئٍ مَا نَوَى. فَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللهِ وَرَسُولِـهِ، فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللهِ وَرَسُولِـهِ. وَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ لِدُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا، أَوِ امْرَأَةٍ يَتَزَوَّجُهَا، فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى مَا هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِ» متفق عليه.
‘Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb narrated saying that God’s Messenger (peace be upon him) said:
1. Actions are but by intention
2. And every man shall have but that which he intended.
3. Thus, he whose migration is [intended] for God and His Messenger, his migration is for God and His Messenger,
4. And he whose migration is for the achievement of some worldly benefit or for taking some woman in marriage, his migration is for that for which he migrated’.
In this hadith, the Prophet makes clear that the main principle for the evaluation and acceptance of people’s actions is the intention behind any action. Essentially, intention distinguishes what is done by habit from what is done as an act of worship. It distinguishes good from evil. A legitimate action may be done by two different people, but only one of them intends his action as an act of obedience to God and earns a reward for it. The other entertains no such intention, and therefore earns no reward. A person who migrates for God’s sake, following the Prophet’s Sunnah, will earn God’s reward, but the one who migrates for some other purpose will only get what he intends.
