Hadith 1
Hadith Text
وَعَنْ أَمِيرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَبِي حَفْصٍ عُمَرَ بْنِ الْخَطَّابِ بْنِ نُفَيْلِ بْنِ عَبْدِ الْعُزَّى بْنِ رِيَاحِ بْنِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ قُرْطِ بْنِ رَزَاحِ بْنِ عَدِيِّ بْنِ كَعْبِ بْنِ لُؤَيِّ بْنِ غَالِبٍ الْقُرَشِيِّ الْعَدَوِيِّ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ: سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَقُولُ: «إِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّاتِ، وَإِنَّمَا لِكُلِّ امْرِئٍ مَا نَوَى، فَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ، وَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ لِدُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا أَوِ امْرَأَةٍ يَنْكِحُهَا فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى مَا هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِ». مُتَّفَقٌ عَلَى صِحَّتِهِ. رَوَاهُ إِمَامَا الْمُحَدِّثِينَ: أَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ إِسْمَاعِيلَ بْنِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ بْنِ الْمُغِيرَةِ بْنِ بَرْدِزْبَةَ الْجُعْفِيُّ الْبُخَارِيُّ، وَأَبُو الْحُسَيْنِ مُسْلِمُ بْنُ الْحَجَّاجِ بْنِ مُسْلِمٍ الْقُشَيْرِيُّ النَّيْسَابُورِيُّ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمَا فِي كِتَابَيْهِمَا اللَّذَيْنِ هُمَا أَصَحُّ الْكُتُبِ الْمُصَنَّفَةِ.
Full Translation
On the authority of the Commander of the Believers, Abu Hafs Umar ibn al-Khattab ibn Nufayl ibn Abd al-Uzza ibn Riyah ibn Abdullah ibn Qurt ibn Razah ibn Adi ibn Ka’b ibn Lu’ayy ibn Ghalib al-Qurashi al-Adawi (may Allah be pleased with him), who said:
I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: “Deeds are only by intentions, and every person will have only what he intended. So whoever’s migration was to Allah and His Messenger — his migration is to Allah and His Messenger. And whoever’s migration was for a worldly gain he wished to acquire, or a woman he wished to marry — his migration is to what he migrated for.”
Agreed upon in its authenticity. Narrated by the two Imams of hadith: Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim ibn al-Mughirah ibn Bardizbah al-Ju’fi al-Bukhari, and Abu al-Husayn Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj ibn Muslim al-Qushayri al-Naysaburi (may Allah be pleased with both of them) — in their two books, which are the most authentic of all compiled works.
Meanings of Key Words
- Innama (إِنَّمَا) — only, exclusively; a word of restriction in Arabic — it closes all other doors and leaves only one open
- Al-niyyat (النِّيَّات) — intentions; the plural of niyyah — the settled resolve of the heart toward an act
- Hijrah (هِجْرَة) — migration; historically the migration from Makkah to Madinah — used here as the example of the greatest deed a Muslim could perform
- Dunya yuseebuha (دُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا) — a worldly gain he wished to acquire; something material he was chasing
- Imama al-muhadditheen (إِمَامَا الْمُحَدِّثِينَ) — the two Imams of hadith; al-Nawawi uses their full lineages to honour them and establish the hadith’s unshakeable authority
Hadith Lessons
Scholars said: if all of Islam were reduced to four hadiths, this would be one of them. If it were reduced to one — many said it would be this one. Imam al-Shafi’i said it constitutes a third of all religious knowledge. Imam Ahmad said the entire religion revolves around three hadiths — and this is the first.
It is not long. It is not complex. It does not describe a battle, a miracle, or a ruling. It simply states the most important fact about every act a human being will ever perform: what determines it is not what you did — it is why you did it.
“Deeds Are Only By Intentions” — The Most Important Word Is “Only”
The word “innama (إِنَّمَا)” in Arabic is a word of exclusion. It does not say “deeds are helped by intentions” or “intentions improve deeds.” It says: deeds are only by intentions. Remove the intention and you have not done the deed — not in any sense that reaches Allah.
This is a radical statement in a world obsessed with output, productivity, and visible results. We measure everything by what was produced: how much was given, how long was prayed, how many were helped, how visibly it was done. Allah measures by something invisible to everyone in the room except Him: what was the heart doing when the hands were moving?
Two people can pray the same prayer, standing side by side, performing identical movements, reciting identical words. In Allah’s sight, those two prayers can be entirely different — because inside two chests, two entirely different intentions are alive. One heart is with Allah. The other is somewhere else entirely.
“Every Person Will Have Only What He Intended” — You Cannot Carry Someone Else’s Reward
The second sentence is the personal application of the first. Not only are deeds defined by intentions — your reward is precisely and exactly limited to what you intended. Nothing more. Nothing borrowed from someone else’s sincerity.
This matters in modern religious life more than we acknowledge. We live in communities, attend the same gatherings, pray in the same rows, give to the same causes. The outward experience is shared. But the reward is entirely individual — carved precisely to the shape of your personal intention. The person sitting next to you at Friday prayer may be receiving an entirely different reward from the same khutbah — because they came with a different heart.
This is not discouraging. It is clarifying. It means your reward is entirely in your own hands — or more accurately, entirely in your own heart. No one else’s distraction can reduce yours. No one else’s sincerity can compensate for your absence of it.
The Example of Hijrah — When the Greatest Deed Becomes Empty
The Prophet ﷺ chose the most dramatic example available to him: the migration (hijrah / هِجْرَة) from Makkah to Madinah. This was not a small act. People left their homes, their families, their wealth, their entire lives. Many suffered terribly. It was the defining sacrifice of early Islam.
And the Prophet ﷺ says: even this — even the hijrah — is only worth what was in the heart behind it.
If a man packed his bags and walked across the desert to Madinah — but his real reason was a business opportunity, or a woman he wanted to marry — then that is what he receives. The journey was real. The sacrifice was real. The physical act was identical to every other migrant’s. But the destination of the reward is wherever the heart was pointed.
This example was chosen deliberately because it removes every excuse. If the greatest visible sacrifice of that era could be rendered spiritually empty by wrong intention — then nothing is too small to be checked, and nothing is too large to be corrupted.
What This Means for Us Today
We live in the age of the performed self. Social media has turned almost every act — charity, prayer, knowledge-sharing, community service, even grief — into something that can be displayed, measured by response, and shaped for an audience.
The Prophet ﷺ is not speaking against action. He is not saying stay home and have pure intentions without doing anything. He is saying: before you act, check who you are acting for. And then act — fully, seriously, generously. But act for Allah.
A donation made quietly, with no receipt and no post, for the sake of Allah alone — reaches somewhere that a loudly announced, publicly celebrated donation may never reach. A prayer prayed in an empty room, with a present heart, may outweigh a prayer prayed in the front row of the masjid with a wandering mind performing for the people behind.
The good news buried in this hadith is profound: ordinary life, fully intentioned toward Allah, becomes extraordinary worship. Driving your children to school — with the intention of fulfilling your duty to Allah — is worship. Working honestly — with the intention of providing what Allah made your responsibility — is worship. Eating, sleeping, resting — when intentioned as preparation to serve Allah better — become acts recorded in your favour. The intention does not just change the quality of worship. It transforms ordinary life into it.
The Full Lineage — Why Imam al-Nawawi Wrote Their Names in Full
A final note on something most readers skip: Imam al-Nawawi closes this hadith by writing the complete lineage of both Imam al-Bukhari and Imam Muslim — every grandfather, every name, the full chain.
This is not decoration. It is honour. These two men dedicated their lives to preserving the words of the Prophet ﷺ with a precision and integrity that no other literature in human history has matched. Al-Nawawi is telling his reader: before you receive this knowledge, know who carried it to you. Know the chain of people who protected these words across generations so that you could read them today.
And it is a quiet reminder of the hadith itself: Imam al-Bukhari and Imam Muslim did what they did — not for fame, not for wealth, not for recognition. They did it because they intended it for Allah. And that intention is why their books are still in your hands more than a thousand years later.
Three Questions to Close With
- When I perform my most regular act of worship today, can I honestly name what my intention was — and is that intention something I would be comfortable presenting to Allah?
- Is there something I am currently doing in the name of religion whose real driver, if I am honest, is the opinion of people around me?
- What is one ordinary daily act — work, parenting, exercise, rest — that I could transform into worship today simply by renewing my intention before I begin?