But what is the sincerity and what does it mean? Sincerity in Arabic is Al Ikhlaas and Al Ikhlaas is:
"To purify a thing and to make it unique from others."
So that thing will become Khaalisan – pure from any defection, if it was a drink, purified from any dirt; if it was water, pure from any germs or bacteria and if it was an action, then for it to be pure from any defection and to be purely and sincerely for the sake of Allah.
For Allah says,
"Verily for you in the cattle are lessons, we make you drink from what is in their tummies from between the blood and the pus we make you drink pure milk free from any defection, with a good taste for it's drinkers." [16: 66]
As for sincerity of the deed, Allah says,
"Say: my prayer and my ritual deeds and my life affairs and my death are all for the sake of Allah the lord of all exclusively and he has no partners with him." [6: 162-163]
In the Shari'ah, the juristic definition for sincerity is:
"To purify what we seek of reward from Allah from any defections in order to be for his sake exclusively."
THE STATUS OF THE SINCERITY
As for the status of sincerity, it is the foundation and basis for success and victory that we seek in the Dunya and the hereafter. The sincerity in relation to the action is like the foundation to the building and like the soul to the body and just as the building can never settle nor be benefited from except when it has a strong foundation that is free from any defection, similarly the action without the sincerity; and just as the life of the body is useless without it's soul so to is the life of action and it's fruits can never be reached except with the sincerity. Allah says,
"So Which is better - The one who establishes the foundation of his building on the Taqwa and pleasure from Allah or the one who builds his foundation on the edge of a landslide that will fall over him and take him to hellfire? And Allah does not guide the oppressors." [9:109]
And when the actions of the Kuffar that they performed were empty from any from any form of tawheed and sincerity for the sake of Allah exclusively, it became that the presence or the absence of those actions was equal. Allah says,
"But it has already been revealed to you, as it was to those before you - "If you commit Shirk (in Allah), truly fruitless will be your actions, and you will surely be among the losers." [Al-Zumar: 65]
And,
"That is because they hate the Revelation of Allah; so He has made their deeds vanish." [47: 9]
The sincerity is one of the two great pillars that based upon them is the Deen of Islam, that is, firstly to do the actions sincerely for the sake of Allah exclusively and second to follow the messenger Muhammad (pbuh) exclusively. That is why Al Fudhayl bin Iyaad said on the Tafseer of the ayah,
"… in order test you to see who does the best deeds." [Mulk: 2]
He explained that that means,
"The deed which is sincere and correct." They asked him, "what does 'sincere and correct' mean?" he said, "if the action was sincere but not correct, it would never be accepted; and if it was correct but not sincere it would never be accepted. Unless it is both sincere and correct, and 'sincere' is that which was for the sake of Allah exclusively and 'correct' is that which was in accordance to the Sunnah."
Imam Abu Al 'Izz whom explained Al Aqeedah Al Tahawiyyah said,
"There are two 'Tawheed's and there is no salvation for the servant of Allah except with both of them, Tawheedullah (exclusivity to Almighty Allah) and exclusivity in following the messenger Muhammad (pbuh). As for the exclusivity to the messenger Muhammad (pbuh), that is by arbitrating to him and to submit fully and to follow completely, whereas the Tawheed to Allah is by worshipping him and elevating him and relying on him and seeking help from him exclusively."
THE PLACE OF THE SINCERITY
The place of the sincerity is in the heart. It is the fence which it settles upon, whenever the sincerity was correct and good sincerely for the sake of Allah, it will make the heart good and it will follow from that the goodness of the limbs; and whenever the heart was empty from any sincerity it will be occupied by the Riyaa' – Al Riyaa is to act for the sake of the people, in order to earn their sympathy or their support or get some other benefit and accordingly the limbs will follow it in that task. There is nothing a greater evidence for that from the sayings of the prophet (pbuh) than when he said,
"Verily, there is in the body a clot, if it becomes good the whole body will become good, and when it becomes bad the whole body will become bad, and that is the heart."
And this Hadith has been clarified by the saying of the messenger of Allah and elaborated in that the action will always follow the heart, the prophet (pbuh) said,
"Verily, the action is on the intention and every person will get what he intention, whoever's Hijrah was for Allah and his messenger, his Hijrah was for Allah and his messenger, and whoever's Hijrah was for the sake of the Dunya or for a woman to marry, his Hijrah is for whatever he intended." [Bukhari and Muslim]
The sincerity is questions in all actions, in the Salah, in the fasting, in the Hajj, in the Jihad, in the da'wah, in the commanding good and forbidding evil and in everything that Allah has legislated from the sayings or the actions. Man must fulfil what has been legislated and his motive and driving force must be to please Allah and the fear from His punishment and seeking His reward. Sincerity in this case is required from every person, from the worker and from the employer from the trustee and from the trusted, from the teacher and from the student, and that is all explained in the Hadith of the prophet (pbuh) when he told us about the good results for the one who seeks knowledge sincerely and also what the result will be if someone seeks knowledge for other than the sake of Allah, he (pbuh) said,
"Whoever seeks a way targeting to seek knowledge, Allah will facilitate for him a way to Jannah." [Narrated in Muslim on the authority of Abu Huraira]
Also in Muslim on the authority of Abu Huraira is that the prophet (pbuh) said,
"The first man to be judged on the day of Judgement is a man who died as a martyr and he will be brought to Allah and he will be asked about all of Allah's blessings and he will recognize them, he will be asked what he did with it in return, he will say, 'I fought for your sake until I was martyred.' It will be said, 'you are a liar, you fought to be called brave and it was said' and it will be ordered for him to be dragged on his face to the hellfire. Then a man who sought the Ilm and was a teacher and recited the Qur'an, he will be brought to Allah and he will be asked about all of Allah's blessings and he will recognize them, he will be asked what he did with it in return, he will say, 'I learnt the knowledge and I taught it and I recited the Qur'an for your sake.' It will be said, 'you are a liar, you learnt for people to sake you are Aalim and you recited the Qur'an for people to say you were Qari' and it was said' and it will be ordered for him to be dragged on his face to the hellfire…"
These two ahadith explain clearly that unless the action was for the sake of Allah exclusively and following the teaching of the messenger (pbuh), it will never be accepted. It has been reported that Mu'awiyah when he heard this Hadith, he cried until he fell unconscious, and then when he awoke he said,
"Allah and His messenger spoke the truth" and he quoted the ayah, "Whoever seeks the Dunya and it's dazzling, we will fulfil for them all their deeds upon it and in this Dunya they will never have less than they deserve."
Abdullah ibn Mas'oud said,
"Do not learn the knowledge for three, (i) to please the corrupted people, (ii) to debate with the scholars or (iii) to direct all the people to yourself, and seek by your deeds that which Allah has for you because that is what will remain and everything else will vanish."
When the sincerity has this much importance and status in Islam as stated in the Shari'ah, Islam encourages and requests us and persists in showing the virtues of sincerity in many Ayaat and ahadith, the way Allah says,
"Verily, we sent you down the book in truth, so worship Allah sincerely." [39: 2]
And Allah says,
"And what they have been ordered is but to worship Allah sincerely and exclusively in all (of the) Deen …" [Bayyinah: 5]
And,
"… Except those who repent and do the good deeds and holds the rope of Allah and they do their deeds sincerely for the sake of Allah." [4: 146]And
"Say: my prayer and my ritual deeds and my life affairs and my death are all for the sake of Allah the lord of all exclusively and he has no partners with him." [6: 162-163]
And he says,
"Whoever seeks to meet his Lord let him do good deeds and let him not associate in his worship with Allah anybody." [18: 110]
And,
"Say: I have been ordered to worship sincerely in all my deen." [Zumar: 11]And the messenger (pbuh) said to his companions on the way to Tabuk, in the Hadith reported in Bukhari,
"There is in Madinah men (Rijaalan), wherever you go, whenever you walk and whatever valley you travel, they are with you, they have been prevented in Madinah because of sickness."
And in another narration in Muslim, he added …
"… and they share with you the reward (ajr)."
And in Bukhari and Muslim, the prophet (pbuh) said to Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas,
"You are not going to spend any Nafaqah for the sake of Allah except that you will get reward for it, even what you put in the mouth of your wife (for the sake of Allah)."
And the messenger (pbuh) said as reported in Muslim,
"Allah does not look to your body nor your images, rather (he) looks to you hearts …"
And in other narrations reported in Bukhari and Muslim, the prophet (pbuh) answered the question about the one who fights as a matter of partisan or to show off or to be called brave, as to which of them is 'for the sake of Allah',
"The one who fights to make the word of Allah the highest, he is the one who is 'fee sabeelillah."
And he (pbuh) said about the one who earns in this life beside what Allah ordained for him in the hereafter is manifested in the Hadith about the three men who entered the cave and the road was blocked by a rock and Allah saved them from it because of the sincerity in the good deeds that they had performed.
WHAT WILL NULLIFY THE SINCERITY?
However, while the sincerity is to purify the thing from any defection, if it is not purified, the sincerity is nullified. If a person does a good action and his motive was to seek the pleasure of Allah; that is sincerity. However, if that motive was to be removed or it had been present but combined with another motive such as showing off, it would no longer be called sincerity. Therefore, when the sincerity in the action is contradicted or negated by having in the heart any contradiction, seeking the creation to be pleased with them or to benefit from them, it will no longer be called sincerity. When there is in the heart anything except the seeking the face of Allah, then they have been dispraised and Allah says,
"They are cursed those who pray and they are Sahoon (i.e. distracted in the Salah) those who (pray in order to) be seen (i.e. have Riyaa') …" [Al Ma'un: 4-6]
The prophet (pbuh) explained to us that the riyaa' is the attribute of the hypocrite,
"When they rise for the Salah, they rise lazy."
It is reported in Muslim on the authority of Abu Huraira that the prophet (pbuh) said that Allah says,
"I am not needy for any partners, whoever does an action and associates with me someone else, I will leave him and his shirk."
Whoever Allah tests him with this deadly disease, he must seek the correct cure for it, which uproots that disease and destroys it. This medicine has two apparent ways to succeed, (i) not to seek people to praise him or to benefit him anything (ii) to train himself to hide his good deeds.
Imam ibn Qayyim elaborated how a person does not seek people in his deeds in Al Fawaa'id p148,
"There cannot be combined in the heart, the sincerity with the love for people to praise or benefit you, except the way you combine the water and the fire or the lizard and the whale. Therefore, if your Nafs inspired you to seek the sincerity, then go first towards greed and slaughter it by the knife of the people and then go towards praise and have Zuhd (desertion) from it the way the one who admires the Dunya and Akhirah has deserted the Dunya and Akhirah. If you were able to slaughter the greed and desert the praise of the people, it will become easy for you to achieve the sincerity. If you ask, 'what is slaughtering the greed and deserting the praise' the answer will be, 'slaughtering the greed will be easy for you if you know for certainty that there is nothing that you seek except in the hands of Almighty Allah exclusively, he has all the treasures safe and nobody has it but Him and no servant can give from it to anybody else. As for the desertion from the praise of the people, it will become easy upon you when you know that nobody will benefit you by his praise nor can he help you nor can it harm you his dispraise except for Allah exclusively.' The way the Bedouin said, 'verily, my praise is good and if I have been dispraised it is bad,' and the prophet (pbuh) said, "That is Allah." No-one of them deserts those who do not dazzle you (with praise) nor shame you (with dispraise). And seek the praise from those who their praise to you will be good for you and who doesn't shame you by their dispraise and you cannot do that except by patience and Yaqeen, so whenever you lose the patience and Yaqeen you become like the one who wants to sail without a boat for Allah says, "be patient for Allah promised you the truth and do not let those who do not have certainty make you feel that you have less…" And Allah says, "and we make from them leaders (A'immah) who follow our guidance."…"
The messenger (pbuh) encouraged us to hide our Ibaadah in the Hadith,
"There will be seven people who Allah will shade them with shade on the day when there will be no shade …"
And he mentioned,
"… The one who used to donate with his right hand without his left hand to know"
and
"… The one who, when he was alone his eyes would fill with tears (for the sake of Allah)."
So those deeds have been praised, which are done away from the eyes of the people. However if a person does a deed sincerely for the sake of Allah and then Allah puts the happiness into the eyes of the people because of it, and so he relaxed and was happy from that, that is not harmful for him nor will he lose in the reward.
In Muslim on the authority of Abu Dharr, the prophet (pbuh) said when a man asked about the one who does the action not for the sake for people to love him but he does the action out of love for Allah and then the people praised him that,
"That is the eligibility of the good believer from the reward."
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