Why Your Intention Matters More Than You Think
Hadith on Intentions and Divine Reward: Ibn Abbas on Good and Bad Deeds
Summary
This lecture discusses a hadith from Ibn Abbas regarding intentions and divine reward, found in both Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. The speaker explains the Islamic principle that Allah records and rewards good and bad intentions differently: good intentions not acted upon receive full reward, those acted upon receive 10 to 700 times the reward, bad intentions not acted upon receive full reward, and bad intentions acted upon receive only one sin. The lecture also provides biographical information about Ibn Abbas, explaining the Islamic naming convention of kunyas (honorific names), his lineage as the Prophet's cousin, and his significance as a leading Islamic scholar among the companions.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
Alhamdulillah.
[Silence]
Abdahbdas. Was forch.
[Silence]
For.
[Silence]
Continuing in the chapter regarding sincerity and intentions. reports a narration here on the authority of Abbass regarding intentions regarding how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala counts and documents and rewards for good deeds and good intentions or bad deeds and bad intentions. He mentions here a narration on the authority of Abbass that the messenger of Allah said that Allah himself has said that Allah has written the good deeds and the bad deeds and we'll get to what is meant by written here in a moment. inshallah he says and then he explained what is meant by he has written the good deeds and the bad deeds and then he went on to elaborate he said hence whoever has the intention to do a good thing and then does not end up doing it Allah will write it for him and count it as a full merit a full hass and if he has the intention of doing it and then follows through with doing it, Allah will write it for him as 10 merits, 10 good deeds, 10 up to 700 times up to many times beyond that. And if a person holds an intention to do something bad and then does not do it, Allah will write it for him as a full merit. And if a person has the intention to do a bad deed and then follows through with it and does it, Allah will write it as one bad deed. He will only write it as one sin. This narration has been collected by both Bkari and Muslim. Here he mentions Abbass. Abbass is Abdullahb Abbass is Kuna and that's his father's name. Abbes. And that is a very common practice even to this day that a son and particularly the eldest son but in this case this is not the case would name his firstborn son after his father and would then be referred to as Abul Abb in this instance his father's name is Abbass be referred to as Abu Abbass and he is Ib Abbass. And this is a kind of honor that young men in the in those times would honor their fathers with and it's something that continues to this day. We mentioned that a kuna abu something or omu in the case of a a woman something whatever it is will come from a number of places. It could come from a number of things. could be something that occurred in this person's life that was significant we mentioned Abu Bakr Abu Bakr when he came down off of the pulley in the battle of to join the prophet Sam and a pulley is called a beak in the Arabic language. though he is referred to as Abu Bakr or as some scholars have mentioned with regards to Abu Hurah is for and it's a little cat. So it said in in some that Abu was carrying a a small kitten in his sleeve, a sleeve of one of his cloaks and the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam saw this and he said what is that? He said this is my kitten and he said you are to be known as Abu then and so forth also Abu Tab for Ali and so forth. there's also which is the most common that a person will get his kuna from his children's names. So usually the eldest son this is where they get their kuna from person has three kids you know let's say you know khalif and abdman and and hud right so the oldest son this is the one that the person would get their ka from so it' be abd for instance This is not necessarily a set rule. There are cases when a person will be named with his kuna or called with his kuna not the eldest of his son but any one of the other of his kids. Or it's it's also possible or known that person may have a daughter that he will then get his kuna from. It's very it's much more rare but it does happen and we have instances of that amongst the companions. So Iban Abbah he gets his from his father his father's name is Albb is the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam's uncle and he is referred to as Abbdahb Abbi the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has four uncles. When we say uncles, we're speaking about paternal uncles. Two of them were disbelievers and two of them were believers. The two believers were Hamza and Albbah, one of which is considered more virtuous than the other. and two disbelieving uncles. They were Abu Lahab and Abu Talib and one of them is considered worse than the other and that is Abuahab and so Abdullahb Abbass was the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam's paternal uncle. Paternal uncle. So he's excuse me, paternal cousin. So he is his cousin from his father's side. He was born 3 years before hijra. So this would place him in about the 10th year after prophethood. And that would also mean that he was born in a in whenish got together and decided to cut off and excommunicate the prophet sallall.aii wasallam and anyone affiliated with him and his entire tribe. They went to the of Abutalib which is a piece of land that he owned that was between two mountains. It was a valley and there they had they had a famine for a number of years and in that place and in that time Iban Abbas was born and he quickly became one of the leading scholars of of Islam amongst the companions for a number of reasons but most notably the prophet sallall.aii wasallam's specific dua for him. And so we will continue with the remainder of Iban Abbas's summarized biography tomorrow inshallah and then finish the narration of the intentions and the way that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala documents and counts these intentions and their play with respect to our actions.
[Arabic recitation]