Transcript
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Salaam alaykum wa rahmatullahi wabarakat. Brothers and sisters in Islam, this is soil that is in front of me, and right here is a date. And within the date there is a seed. Let's think of this seed as an intention. So there is an interesting correlation between Noah, which is a seed, and Niya, which is intention. And that is that intentions are like seeds. What do we do with a seed? A seed is taken and is buried into the ground. So, so we bury it into the ground and we cover it. That's what we do with seeds, and that's what we are supposed to do with intentions. Our intentions are supposed to be pure and are supposed to be hidden and covered in our hearts. It is something between us and Allah. No one is supposed to know about them. Once we have the intention in place. And of course, a person is always encouraged to make an intention before you pray, before you fast, before you give it, a sadaqah, before you do umrah, before you do hajj, any type of good deed you do. We are supposed to have an intention. Now I've put this seed and I've buried it. That's us having an intention. And I've covered it in the heart. Now this seed is not going to grow unless it makes contact with something from the outside, which is water. So now when water comes in contact with the seed, it's going to start growing. The idea is when I have an intention on its own, I cannot make this intention into action. I need the help of Allah. So think of the rain that's coming to the seed as the help of Allah for you. And so when you make the intention, we're supposed to ask Allah that he make our intention into a righteous action, into an accepted action. We ask Allah, we beg him, we say allahumma ainni oh Allah, give me the ability, give me ability that I perfect my worship towards you afterwards, once you've made your intention, it's sincere, pure. If everything has been right so far, what happens next is that this seed begins to split open and a shoot will come out. So during this entire process, that is all a representation of how much hard work and effort a person puts after he's made an intention. And if your intention is pure and it's sincere and it's injected with a lot of Allah's help and mercy and aid, then what happens next is a tree grows, a tree comes out. And this is a representation of the fact that your intention has grown into an action, a writing righteous action. People don't see the intention. People see this. And if the intention is right, look how healthy we have. We have a healthy tree that would grow with healthy flowers, healthy leaves and healthy fruits. And not only this, but this tree now may carry seed. And these seeds would drop and they would grow into more trees. And perhaps we can have an entire garden of lovely looking trees just because of one seed. So, my brothers and sisters in Islam, when the one intention we have in our heart is sincere and we ask Allah for lots of help and aid and support, don't belittle what would happen next. By the permission of Allah, many good deeds can emerge, many righteous actions could emerge, and an entire garden of goodness may be added to your record of good deeds. And finally, brothers and sisters in Islam, we don't want to forget the words of Imam Ahmad. When his son asked him, give me advice, he said to him, intend good. Always intend good. For as long as you continue to intend good, you will always be in a good situation and in a good state. Allahu Akbar. So let's not belittle intentions and understand Al Amalu bin Niyyat. Our actions are determined and judged by our intentions. We ask Allah to grant us sincere intentions. Jazakumullahu khairah. As salaam alaykum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh.