The Singularity of Intention and Will

Jum'ah khutba - Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - Cambridge - October 2012 - 27mins 39secs 'Do not push aside those who call upon their Lord morning and night desiring His Face...' Surah Al-'An`ām, verse 52 The Sheikh begins this khutba with this ayah, which touches on the key Qur'anic concept of irada and niyya, will and intention. A 'key counterbalance to excessive exteriority', these principles are the gateways the Almighty uses to judge our actions in this earthly realm. Famously Imam Bukhari begins his great corpus of Sahih Hadith with the foundational narration starting "actions are by intentions". Quite often when discussing intentions, the idea of sincerity is mentioned, a translation of ikhlas. Whilst this translation is common, the Sheikh points out that ikhlas can be defined not simply as sincerity but rather as a purification of an entity to its most singular essence. Thus in this context the believer is asked to have a singularity of intention in all his or her affa...