Just like good motives have good outcomes, most of what we achieve has to do with our intentions and motives. You have all heard the hadith, “Deeds are judged and compensated based on their intentions.” Last time, we discussed someone who held good intentions, made an effort, and how that saved him. Similarly, if a person has the wrong motive or the wrong intention, it can have an adverse effect on their own outcomes. The Qur’an mentions a story about this in surah Al-Qalam. There was a wealthy and pious man who had a massive orchard. He had a habit of allowing people to pick up the fruit that had fallen before the harvest. In other words, if there was fruit that had fallen from the trees, before harvest, he would allow people to pick up what was on the ground without charge, and he would harvest which was on the trees. So, when he passed away, he advised his sons to allow this to continue. The sons got together and said, “This is a lot of fruit that falls by itself. If we let the poor come and take it all, this is a huge loss. If we were to sell this food, we would make so much more profit.” They said, “How do we contend with this when people have made it a habit at every harvest?” They reached the consensus that they would leave in the middle of the night; and once they arrived at the farm, they would collect all the fruit. This way, when the people came, they would find that there was nothing to collect and they would leave. This would create an understanding that it was no longer going to be a practice. These three brothers left in the middle of the night to salvage and collect whatever they could before the poor and needy came. When they started walking, they felt as if they were going in circles, and they were not able to find their farm. They tried and tried and said, “It looks like we are lost.” “How could we be lost? This is our own farm.” After some confusion and walking around in the dark for some time, they realized that they were, in fact, at their farm, but they did not recognize it anymore because there was not much of a farm left to look at.
Something had come and annihilated that entire orchard and there was nothing left but twigs and sticks that had fallen on the ground. They said, “How did this happen?” The Qur’an said, “While they were still sleeping, Allah (SWT) had sent a storm that wiped out the entire crop. It was like a farm that had already been harvested.” They realized, “We are not lost, we have been deprived of this.” The middle brother said, “I told you so.” By then, it was too late. This is an example of someone who had set out with the wrong intentions and Allah (SWT) showed the effects of that wrong intention. The intention was to become greedy and take something that poor people were expecting to receive . How many hearts would that have broken that day? week? or month? and how much damage would have been done just for the sake of greed? When they set out on this mission, Allah (SWT)’s command came and wiped out everything. Similarly, the prophet (SAW) mentions in a hadith that a group of people were coming in the form of an army to attack the Ka’bah, and while they were a flat area outside of Makkah, the ground would open and swallow all of them. One of the wise men asked, “Why would all of them be swallowed by the earth even though the habit is that whenever any caravan comes people would join? There might be merchants or people that are coming into Makkah innocently. Why would everyone be swallowed?” The prophet (SAW) said, “In this world, the effects will take place and everyone who was a part of that group will be taken to task. In the hereafter, they will all be raised according to what their motives were.” We learn that our motives have both an effect on us in this world and on the people around us as well. It becomes so crucial for us to keep checking our intention and motive. May Allah (SWT) purify our intentions and and allow us to come closer to him and may we move further away from the acts that displease Allah (SWT).
