By Shaykh Waleed bin Idrees al-Meneese<\/p>\n
Translated by Abu Najm bin al-Iskandar<\/p>\n
This is what has become apparent to me after a great deal of research on this matter, in summary:<\/p>\n
1) Whoever performs acts of obedience with the intention of seeking the praise of people alone or with the intention of reward in the Afterlife while also seeking the praise of people, then it is the proscribed showing-off [Riy\u0101\u2019].<\/p>\n
2) Whoever performs acts of obedience with the intention of its worldly benefit which are done in a common form such as trade during Hajj, spoils acquired through warfare, receiving payment for teaching Quran or being an Imam, a nutritional diet through fasting or physical fitness through prayer- all of this, when empty of the intention of seeking reward in the Afterlife is prohibited.<\/p>\n
As for when it is coupled with the intention of reward in the Afterlife, then it is permissible however the reward is diminished.<\/p>\n
3) Whoever performs acts of obedience with the intention of its worldly benefit which are done based on the law like healing by means of charity, reciting the Quran, prolonging life, provision by means of maintaining ties of kinship, rain and children by means of seeking forgiveness- all of this, when empty of the intention of reward in the Afterlife, then it is a valid intention, if Allah wills, however its reward is diminished.<\/p>\n
We say it is a valid intention due to what this intention involves of affirming the promise of Allah and His Messenger SAWS, if there is no mental connection based on materialistic standards linking helping by means of wealth and sons and seeking forgiveness for example. Thus whoever seeks both [i.e. help through sons and wealth] through seeking forgiveness is affirming the promise of Allah as one rewarded; just as whoever seeks that through an amulet or cowry shell is a sinning, false testifier due to his affirmation of the promise of the false prophets and his adoption of means neither legislated nor material.<\/p>\n
As for someone who seeks healing or provision and the likes out of worldly benefits through their material means such as cures, trade and farming- he has done something permissible, as one authorized in it.<\/p>\n
As for when someone couples the adoption of legal means for healing, provision and the likes with the intention of reward in the Afterlife, then it is a valid intention whose reward is increased, if Allah wills, when there is affirmation of the promise of Allah and His Messenger SAWS in that intention.<\/p>\n
I fear that a prohibition of that from some of the eminent luminaries has leaked out from the discourse of those who engaged in Ta\u1e63awwuf from the perspective that worshipping Allah with the intention of attaining Paradise and salvation from the Hell-Fire was a blemish to true sincerity [\u2018Ikhl\u0101\u1e63]. So that led them to making the adoption of legal means something which blemished true sincerity [\u2018Ikhl\u0101\u1e63], and we ask Allah to make us among those who are truly sincere.<\/p>\n
The matter is quite thorny and [a path upon which] feet are shaky- we ask Allah for pardon and safety. In Allah, the exalted, is true success and He is the most knowledgeable of the correct view.<\/p>\n
-Shaykh Waleed bin Idrees al-Meneese<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Shaykh Waleed bin Idrees al-Meneese Translated by Abu Najm bin al-Iskandar This is what has become apparent to me after a great deal of research on this matter, in summary: 1) Whoever performs acts of obedience with the intention of seeking the praise of people alone or with the intention of reward in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanbali.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanbali.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanbali.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanbali.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanbali.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hanbali.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanbali.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanbali.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanbali.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}