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Good Morning.

There is a famous maxim, ‘Actions are by Intention’. This is drawn from a Prophetic tradition.  Niyya or intention must precede every religious act otherwise the act is invalid.  Niyya helps the Muslim to get into the right frame of mind, to ensure focus and concentration on the matter at hand.  It provides clarity and helps to unclutter the mind from all sorts of distractions.   It also means that acts that we take for granted, our daily chores, could also become a means of our gaining the good pleasure of God.  For example, opening a window, which otherwise would be a neutral act becomes meritorious when one does so with the intention of drawing in the cool breeze for one’s mother.

The key is for each act to be solely for the pleasure of God and therefore accompanied with complete sincerity.   As the Sufi master al-Qushairi said, ‘sincerity is the purification of action.’  Another tradition informs us that on the Day of Judgment ‘a man whom God had made abundantly rich and had granted every kind of wealth (would be brought before God. God will make him recount His blessings and admit having enjoyed them. God will then ask: What have you done in return for these blessings? He will say: I spent money in every cause in which Thou wished that it should be spent. God will say: You are lying. You did so that it might be said about you, " He is a generous fellow" and so it was said.  This is to remind Muslims that all that we possess belongs to God and our return is to God and therefore each act should have as its focus our ultimate destination God.

May God grant us sincerity of intention in all that we do.  Amin.