© Islamic Online University Heavenly Pearls: Nawawi's 40 Hadith

Islamic
Online
University

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© Islamic Online University Heavenly Pearls: Nawawi's 40 Hadith

Heavenly
Pearls:
Nawawi's 40
Hadith
By
Abu Abdissalam
MODULE 1

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Hadith 1

On the authority of Ameer ul-Mu'mineen (the Commander of the Faithful), Abu

Hafs `Umar ibn al-Khattaab radiAllahu anhu, who said: I heard the Messenger of
Allah sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam say:

"Actions are but by intentions and every man shall have only that which
he intended. Thus he whose migration was for Allah and His Messenger,
his migration was for Allah and His Messenger, and he whose migration
was to achieve some worldly benefit or to take some woman in
marriage, his migration was for that for which he migrated."

Related by Bukhari and Muslim

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"Upon the authority of Amir Al-Mu'minin, Abu Hafs, Umar ibn Al-
Khattab…"

How did Umar RA get all these titles?

Amir Al-Mu'minin:

During the khilafah of Abu Bakr RA, they used to call Abu Bakr the Khalifah of the
Messenger of Alah SAW, or the Successor of the Messenger of Allah SAW.

Then, when Umar RA became the Khalifah, they would call him the Khalifah of the
Khalifah of the Messenger of Allah SAW; that is, the Successor of Abu Bakr RA.

So there are two explanations given as to how the title 'Amir Al-Mu'minin' was given to
Umar RA. One is like this: that one day a person came from Iraq and said, "Where is
your Amir, leader?" They replied, "Who is the Amir?" He said, "The Amir Al-Mu'minin,
or the Leader of the Believers." This is one explanation given. The second is that Umar
RA himself said that "you are the believers and I am your Amir (leader) so I am the Amir
Al-Mu'minin."

Abu Hafs:

Abu Hafs means the father of the lion. They said that he was given this pseudonym
because of his courage and strength. They mention that he would grab one ear of a horse
with one hand and the other ear with another hand, and then get onto the horse's back
without leaning on anything. So he was given this title for this characteristic of his, the
one of strength, courage and boldness.

Al-Faruq:

It is said that this title was given to him by the Messenger of Allah SAW, just as he SAW
gave the title of the Sword of Allah to Khalid ibn Walid. In the famous story about the
Umar's RA conversion to Islam, although some scholars seem the narration to be weak,
he went out one day looking for the Prophet SAW to kill him. Now, Umar RA was one of
the most hurtful of people to the Muslims before Islam. So here he is going with his
sword asking where the Prophet SAW is so he can kill him. A man came to him and
asked him "Where are you going?" "I'm going to kill Muhammad," he replied. "Are you
able to kill Muhammad through Banu Hashim and Banu Zuhrah?" The man then told him
that his own sister and her husband had become Muslims. At that, Umar turned around
and started heading for his sister's house. When he got there, Khabbab (ibn Al-Arad?) RA
teaching them both the Qur'an. They were actually hiding their Islam. So when they
heard Umar's voice, Khabbab hid in the house. Umar entered the house and asked her,

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"What is this humming that I just heard?" His sister's husband said, "It is only us
speaking between ourselves." They were actually reciting Surah TaHa. So Umar went to
hit her husband and then his sister got up to defend him so Umar hit her instead. So when
he saw blood coming from her, he regretted what he had done. Then, his sister said to
him "Oh Umar! I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that
Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah!" So Umar said, "Show me the scripture that you
were just reading from." She replied, "No! You are filthy and this is the Book of Allah.
First go and wash yourself." So he washed, and then read the scripture. He then asked,
"Where is Muhammad now?" When Khabbab heard this he came out and said, "I heard
the Messenger of Allah on Thursday make du'a to Allah: Oh Allah! Give strength to
Islam by Umar ibn Al-Khattab or by 'Amr ibn Hisham." He said, "Where is Muhammad
now?" Khabbab replied, "He is in the house just above Safa." Umar went to the house
and found Hamza RA by the door. Hamza said, "Umar has come; if Allah willed good for
him and he has become a Muslim, then that is better for him and if not, then to kill him is
easy for us." Anyway, the Prophet SAW came out and Umar said to him, "I bear witness
that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is
the Messenger of Allah." They sat in the house for a while and then Umar RA asked the
Prophet SAW, "Oh Messenger of Allah! Are we not on the truth, alive and dead?" He
replied, "By the One in whose hand is my soul, we are upon the truth, alive and dead." He
said, "So Why are we sitting here hiding? Let us go and proclaim our Islam!" So they
went out in two rows: Umar at the head of one row and Hamza at the head of the other.
So they went out and completed Tawaf of the Ka'bah and the polytheists were left staring
at them. Thus that day the Prophet SAW called him Al-Faruq: the one who distinguishes;
as if to say that he distinguished between the hidden da'wah of Islam and the open
da'wah. The Muslims were distinguished when Umar RA became a Muslim.

"I heard the Messenger of Allah SAW say 'Indeed, actions are but by
intention and for every man is what he intends…'"

This is the first hadith, the hadith of Umar RA. It is a great hadith. Many scholars of the
salaf said that this hadith should be at the beginning of every book. This is why Imam Al-
Bukhari began his book with this hadith and made this the first hadith.

This hadith is a foundation or principle from among the foundations and principles of
this deen of Islam. Imam Ahmad said that there are three ahadith that Islam revolves
around: this hadith of Umar RA, the hadith of Aishah RA (whoever does an action which
is not in accordance with our way, it will be rejected) and the hadith of Nu'man ibn Al-
Bashir (the lawful matters are clear and the unlaw matters are clear. And between them
are matters which are doubtful.) This statement of Imam Ahmad is amazing for the
reason that the actions of the worshippers of Allah revolve around performing those
things that are obligated and keeping away from those things that are prohibited. And this
is the lawful and the prohibited. And there is the third category between the two: the

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doubtful matters. So these three types of actions are all mentioned in the hadith of
Nu'man: the lawful is clear and the unlawful is clear, and there are matters in between
them which are doubtful. And whoever wishes to perform the obligations or keep away
from the unlawful matters, then for him to be rewarded he has to have the correct
intention. Also, those things that Allah ordered from among the obligations and
recommended matters need outward criteria as to whether it will be accepted or not – ie
how do we perform those actions? And this is covered in the hadith that whoever does an
action which is not in accordance with our way, then it will be rejected.

So this hadith, Actions are but by intention, is needed in every type of action:

• Performing the commands

• Keeping away from the prohibitions
• Avoiding the doubtful matters

The statement of the Prophet SAW: "Indeed, actions are but by intention and for
every man is what he intends…" is a phrase which includes hasr, or confinement or
exclusiveness. That is, the Prophet SAW confined actions to their respective intentions.
So the meaning, therefore, is: Actions are exclusively by intention. The meaning is not:
Actions are by intention. There is an additional aspect to the sentence by the word
Innamaa which gives the meaning of exclusiveness to the sentence.

The scholars have differed over the meaning of this phrase, "Indeed actions are but by
intention", into two opinions, because the Prophet SAW confined actions to their
intentions.

The First Opinion

The first phrase, "Indeed actions are but by intention", means that actions are accepted or
are sound due to their intentions, while the second phrase, "and for every man is that
which he intends", means that a person will be rewarded or requited according to that
which he intended. So the first phrase is to do with the acceptance, soundness and
correctness of actions, while the second phrase is to do with the reward of the actions.
Actions are only accepted because of their intentions. [baa is sababiyyah], and for every
man is only the reward of that which he intends [laam is for milkiyyah].

The Second Opinion

The first phrase, "Indeed actions are but by intention", means that actions occur due to
intentions [baa is sababiyyah also, but sabab of the action; not sabab of the reward]. In
other words, every action that occurs has an intention behind it. There is no action except
that it has an intention with it. So all actions have intentions, whether the action is a good
action or a bad one, and whether that action is accepted by Allah or not; every action is
performed due to an intention behind it.

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So if a person intends an action and he has the complete ability for that action to occur,
then that action will occur.

So the first phrase means that actions emanate from intentions, and the second phrase
means that whatever a person intends then that is what he will attain: if he intends good
by that action, then his action will be sound and if he does not intend good by his action,
then the action will not be sound but will be incorrect.

The reason this group of scholars held this opinion is because there is no need for an
ellipsis in the sentence: actions occur by intention. However, in the first opinion you
would need an ellipsis to get that meaning: actions are accepted and are sound only
according to their intention.

The reason this group of scholars hold this opinion is because they say that this hadith is
an Islamic statement and not a statement to do with a natural phenomena or a matter of
fact that actions are caused by intentions. Rather it is talking about the Islamic fact that
actions are rewarded by intention.

Shaykh Shanqiti says that both opinions are possible and this seems to me to be the best
explanation of the hadith because the wording of the hadith can contain both
explanations.

Actions

'Actions' here means anything that emanates from the person. It does not just mean the
physical acts of the limbs, but the word 'actions' also includes the speech of the heart, the
actions of the heart, the speech of the tongue and the actions of the limbs. So included in
this word 'actions' is everything to do with one's Iman.

Intentions

The place of the intention is the heart. It is not on the tongue. In other words, when a
person intends something, his heart aims to do that thing and then has a determination to
carry it out.

So the condition for an action to be accepted is that it must have with it an intention and
a resolve of the heart. What must this heart aim or intend? It must aim and intend that this
action is only for the sake of Allah.

This is why in the Qur'an and Sunnah there are different words used for the concept of
niyyah:

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Iraadah – desire, aim

Ibtighaa' - want

Qasd - aim

Islam of the heart, submission

Seeking the Face of Allah

There are two meanings of the word 'niyyah' in the Qur'an and Sunnah:

1) The niyyah towards the 'ibaadah – act of worship

2) The niyyah towards the ma'bood – the One who you worship

Niyyah towards the 'ibaadah

This is what is meant by the jurists, the fuqahaa', when they speak about the niyyah. It is
the intention that a person makes which differentiates between acts of worship. For
example, when a person enters the Masjid in the morning at fajr time and then prays two
raka'ahs: what is the intention behind these two raka'ahs? Is it the two sunnahs for fajr,
the tahiyyatul-masjid, or the fard fajr prayer? The main thing that differentiates between
these types of prayers is this type of intention.

Likewise, if a person fasts outside of Ramadan: is it a voluntary fast or is he making up

for a missed fast from Ramadan? This type of intention differentiates between that.

Niyyah towards the ma'bood

This is the second type of niyyah: the intention that a person has about the object of his
worship: who is he worshipping? Often, we talk about this type of intention with the
word 'ikhlas' or sincerity or purity of worship.

This hadith encompasses both types of niyyah: the niyyah towards the act of worship as
well as the niyyah towards the object of worship, the ma'bood.

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Therefore, 'actions are but by intention' means that actions are but by the intention that a
person makes towards the action as well as by the intention that a person makes towards
the object of worship.

"And for every man is that which he intends"

This phrase also includes hasr or confinement and exclusiveness due to the word
'innamaa'. That is, the reward for every person from his action is that which he intends
from his action. So if he intends Allah by his action and the hereafter, then his action is
considered sound and acceptable. Conversely, if his religious action is for this world, then
it is considered unacceptable and void.

Allah mentions the concept of ikhlas in many verses of the Qur'an "wa maa umiroo illaa
li ya'budu 'llaha mukhliseena lahud-deen"

"alaa lillaahid-deen al-khaalis"

Also this concept of ikhlas is mentioned in many hadiths such as the hadith qudsi, “I am
the most Self-Sufficient of partners, needing no partnership; so if one does a deed for Me
and for another [simultaneously], then I will leave him and his shirk.”

In another wording, "it is for the one who he associated as partners with Me and I am
free from it."

This shows that any act of worship has to be purely and sincerely for Allah alone, so that
it will be accepted by Allah.

From this we can understand that whoever does an action and intends in that action other
than Allah, then his action is rendered null and void, due to the statement in the hadith
qudsi.

There are three situations when a person could intend by his action other than Allah:

1) He initiates the action for other than Allah. That is, the very base reason for his action
is other than Allah. This action will certainly be futile and void and the person is a
mushrik. An example of this is a person who prays, not for the sake of Allah, but for the
sake of someone who is watching him; such as his father, the local imam, or a shaykh,
etc. The prophet SAW said, "whoever prays seeking to be seen has committed shirk,
whoever fasts seeking to be seen has committed shirk, whoever gives charity seeking to
be seen has committed shirk." That is, when he initiated the prayer, fast, or charity, he did
this for the sake of someone else. Of course this is only conceivable as a one-off by a
Muslim. It is not conceivable that a Muslim would do this for all his acts of worship; but

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that would only be done by a hypocrite, as Allah says: "yuraa'oona an-naasa wa laa
yadhkuroona Allaha illaa qaleelaa"

2) He starts off intending Allah by his action and then he changes his intention for
someone else during the act of worship. This type of situation has two subcategories
under it:

a) He nullifies his initial intention which was for Allah and then he replaces that
intention with the intention for someone else. The ruling of this type of action is that it is
also null and void.

b) He betters his action so that the one watching or hearing can see or hear him. So rather
than saying subhana rabbial-a'laa three times, he says it five times in order to be seen,
showing off by this, or he increases his recitation in the salah contrary to his normal
recitation in salah. The ruling of this type of action is that the part which he increased is
void because his intention in that part of the action was for someone other than Allah, but
the foundation of the action is still considered accepted because this false intention was
not made for other than Allah when the action was initiated. So due to that which he
increased in his action, he is a mushrik, the minor shirk which is riyaa – may Allah
protect us from that.

3) He completes the action for the sake of Allah, but then after completing the action, he
gets praised for his action and he gets happy about that and then desires the person to
praise him more for that action. The ruling for this type of action is that it is not shirk
because it occurred after the action and in fact during the action he intended Allah alone.
As the prophet SAW said: "That is the temporary glad tidings for the believer that he
hears the people praising him for his action."

From this we can understand that actions whose intentions should be for Allah are of two
categories:

1) Actions in which it is impermissible to have the intention for other than Allah – these
are most of the acts of worship and are those acts which Allah has not mentioned a
worldly reward for.

2) Actions which Allah and His messenger SAW have encouraged by mentioning a
portion of the reward for them as being something in this dunya. An example of this is
when the Messenger of Allaah SAW said: “Whoever would like his rizq (provision) to be
increased and his life to be extended, should uphold the ties of kinship.” (Reported by al-
Bukhaari, 5986 and Muslim, 2557).

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So he encouraged enjoining the ties of kinship by mentioning the rewards for it in this
life: increase in lifespan and provision.

So whoever intends by these types of actions that which Allah and His messenger SAW
have mentioned from the rewards of these actions, then it is allowed for him to intend and
desire that, because they did not encourage these actions by mentioning their respective
worldly rewards except as a permission from them for people to desire these rewards and
perform these actions seeking these rewards.

So whoever upholds the ties of kinship intending Allah by that, but also intending to
increase his life and provision then he is allowed to do that.

Obviously, however, the one who intends Allah only is higher in station than the one who
intends Allah along with the worldly reward that Allah has assigned to that action.

"So whoever migrates for Allah and His Messenger has migrated for Allah
and His Messenger and whoever migrates for a worldly purpose, or to take a
woman in marriage, then his migration is for whatever he migrated for"

This is an explanation, explaining the principle that has been taught in the first part of the
hadith.

The essence of the word hijrah (migration) means leaving and avoiding. The general
meaning of hijrah is that we migrate to Allah by being sincere in our acts of worship and
to the prophet SAW by following his sunnah and way.

Then there is the specific hijrah: from a land of shirk to a land of Islam. What this hadith
means is that whoever migrates for Allah and His Messenger by intending by his hijrah
Allah and His messenger SAW, has migrated for Allah and His Messenger, meaning that
his reward will be for the one who does this. Allah's messenger SAW left out the actual
reward to show the magnitude of the reward for the one who makes hijrah for Allah's
sake; ie, to show how great the reward will be, there is no need to even mention what it
actually is.

Then he SAW talked about the hijrah which was not for Allah and His messenger SAW
and gave the example of one who migrates for a wordly purpose and the one who
migrates for marriage. The first is talking about the businessman who migrates for his
business or for any worldly purpose and the second is about the one who migrates in
order to marry someone; perhaps the woman put this condition on him for marriage or
something like that.

"then his migration is for whatever he migrated for"

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This means that he will not be rewarded for his act of worship, which in this case is
hijrah, and in fact he may even get a sin for that.

The scholars have defined hijrah as being to leave the land of shirk and go to a land of
Islam, or to leave a land in which bid'ah, or innovation, is prevalent to a place where it is
not so prevalent; a third category is to migrate from a land of fisq, or sin and corruption,
and go to a land of Islam.

These all have their respective rulings in the books of fiqh.

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