Allah SWT has granted us the beautiful and unique opportunity to perform deeds in order to please Him, to advance ourselves, and to gain a reward in the Hereafter. The deeds that we perform, they have two components to them: the first, and the foundational, is the niyyah; and the second is the actual deed itself. Both components are essential for the success of the believer. You can have a deed with a bad niyyah and the deed becomes worthless; and you can have a niyyah with no deed, and the niyyah becomes worthless. Both extremes can exist.

For example, a person becomes a scholar of the deen. The deed is excellent. But the person becomes a scholar of deen because they desire to argue with people; they desire that people talk about how great they are; they desire that people are subjugated under their watch. Then, because the niyyah is corrupted, the great deed becomes an excuse for the person to be thrown in the Hellfire. And we know from hadith that, despite the greatness of such a deed, that type of niyyah will place a person in the Hellfire. So, what example do we have there? In this example, we have a great deed with a corrupted niyyah, which renders the whole act worthless.

You can also have the opposite extreme. You can have a great niyyah, which is not followed up by a deed; and that also renders the niyyah worthless. I mean, you might wonder, “Well, how can I have a niyyah with no deed?” I’ll give you an example. You make the intention in your heart—there’s somebody whose raising funds in order to take care of orphans in Syria. You’re listening to the person talk; and the person is explaining the greatness of taking care of orphans; and the rewards associated with doing so; the benefits of giving sadaqah; the benefits of sharing one’s wealth; the responsibilities of zakaah upon the wealthy. And you listen to all this and you say to yourself, “I don’t have the wealth. I’m a student. I don’t have the wealth. But, if Allah SWT gave me the wealth, then I would certainly donate it in His name”. So now, the person makes the niyyah. They make a niyyah for a very big deed—to give sadaqah to support orphans; to share from that which Allah SWT has given them; but they’re not able to perform the deed because they don’t have any wealth. So, what happens? A few years later, Allah SWT blesses them with wealth. And then, the next time, they’re sitting in a gathering, and a person says to them, “You know, there is a difficulty that is befalling a subset of the community. And this is an opportunity to give sadaqah. This is an opportunity to share your wealth. This is an opportunity to earn for yourself freedom from Allah’s anger and to free oneself from the shackles of jahannam; and then the person says, “I don’t think I want to give.” They make excuses: “I don’t trust this person”. Or, “I don’t think that this is a worthwhile cause”. These are excuses that come to a person’s mind.

So, what happens? They had a great niyyah. But when Allah SWT gave them the opportunity to perform the deed, they failed. That renders the niyyah completely worthless because it is now shown that the individual—although they made the niyyah—the individual’s niyyah was not of any value.

Just to highlight this tug of war: you’ve heard the famous story that there was an individual who had killed ninety-nine people. Just imagine, he’s murdered ninety-nine people. Now, what happens? He’s looking for repentance. He starts feeling bad in his heart; and he wants to make amends with his Lord. But, he’s thinking that, “I killed ninety-nine people. If I killed ninety-nine people, there’s no chance for me”. So, what does he do? He goes to the most pious person that he can find and he says to this person that, “I’d like to confide in you that I killed ninety-nine people. Is there any way that Allah SWT will forgive me?” So, that pious person says, “No. You killed ninety-nine people. You’re not going to be forgiven”. So, he become so angry, he kills the pious person,[...]