Question: “It is said that comprehensive gratitude can be fulfilled through a comprehensive intention.”[1] Could you elaborate on this?
Answer: As the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) stated, actions gain their value according to intentions.[2] In fact, a person may compensate through intention for the gaps that their deeds are unable to fill in terms of servitude to God.[3] In this respect, what ultimately earns a person Paradise is not merely outward deeds, but rather determination, striving, devotion, earnest effort, and the direction of the heart on the path of God.
If the Almighty were to reward us only in proportion to the deeds we perform, we could never attain the blessings of Paradise, the vision of God, Divine good pleasure, or eternal happiness; indeed, we could not even deserve a peaceful life in the grave. Even the gratitude due for worldly blessings could never be fully repaid through our actions. Even if we were to spend our entire lives in prostration and supplication without ever raising our heads from the ground, we still could not repay the blessings with which we have been honored. As expressed in the Gulistan, a person owes God two expressions of gratitude with every breath, because each inhalation and exhalation sustains life itself. Therefore, we are incapable of fully giving thanks even for a single breath we take and release. Thus, what will earn us eternal Paradise is not the small amount of worship we perform during our brief lives, but our comprehensive intention.
A believer always responds to the overwhelming blessings bestowed upon them with humility and strives to live a life overflowing with gratitude. As a requirement of faith, they approach worship with the consciousness: “My God, You are the Absolute One worthy of worship, and therefore servitude belongs solely to You. Since I am Your servant, worship is my duty. Even though it is impossible to worship You as You truly deserve, as long as You grant me life, I will never abandon servitude to You. Even if You were to let me live for millions of years, I would never leave Your door; I would spend my entire life bound in devotion and worship.” In this way, a believer is able to live without falling into the ingratitude toward which Satan seeks to drag people.
Comprehensive intention fills the gaps left by our deeds and opens for us the way to eternal happiness. In this way, the acts of worship performed by the servant become the strongest proof and reference for the worship they sincerely intended and planned to perform afterward.
God knows best, but the Almighty’s response to such a comprehensive intention may be understood as follows: “My servant, you are sincere in your word. Whenever you found the opportunity, you fulfilled the acts of worship that were commanded of you. Clearly, had you been granted a longer life, you would have carried out the worship you intended in practice as well. Therefore, I accept the deeds you intended but could not perform as though you had actually carried them out.”
It is through this comprehensive intention that we do one thing while God grants a millionfold return, thereby making us worthy of eternal happiness.
Moreover, through our comprehensive intention, we may earn reward for things we aimed for but were unable to achieve. For example, the true meaning of becoming genuinely human is to attain the horizon of the insan al-kamil—the perfected human being. We may sincerely aspire to this, yet our capacities may not be sufficient, or circumstances may not allow it. As a result, we may become stranded somewhere along the path leading to that lofty horizon. Nevertheless, according to the sincerity of our intention, God Almighty accepts as a reference the striving and effort we exert on this path. He may graciously grant us the reward of the outcome we sought and, through His grace, fill the empty spaces in our record of deeds.
Likewise, suppose that you sincerely desire the noble name and message of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) to spread throughout the world, and you strive as much as you can to realize this goal. God, in turn, accepts this comprehensive intention of yours and rewards you according to your intention, regardless of how far along you may be in reaching that objective.
Similarly, another person may set out with the aim of filling all hearts with compassion, preventing conflicts across the earth, eliminating wars, and establishing an atmosphere of tolerance and dialogue everywhere. Such a person takes whatever steps they can within the limits of their own strength and means. Then God, through His infinite power, fills the gap between the servant’s intention and actions.
It is beneficial to emphasize once again that for this comprehensive intention to carry value in the sight of God, we must fulfill the responsibilities for which we are accountable and exert every effort within our capacity. Whether our intention is to become a perfected human being, to uphold and exalt the truth, or to pursue some other goal that religion places before us in seeking the good pleasure of God, we must remain fully focused on that goal. We must think about it constantly, rise and sit with it in mind, and pursue it without interruption. In one sense, the deeds we perform constitute the foundation upon which our intentions are built. Perhaps the performance we display is no more than a single drop when it comes to truly doing justice to the task. Yet we must still present that drop so that God Almighty, in honor of our comprehensive intention, may transform that drop into an ocean and turn our tiny particles into radiant suns.
As for comprehensive gratitude, the essential condition for fulfilling it is becoming aware of the countless blessings God Almighty has bestowed upon us. First of all, He brought us from nonexistence into the realm of existence; and He not only created us, but also honored us with the blessing of life. Then He did not leave us at the level of mere animal existence, but granted us the blessing of humanity. Beyond that, He included us within the blessed community of Prophet Muhammad, the Pride of Humanity (peace and blessings be upon him), and made us believers with the potential to become perfected human beings. In this age when the responsibility of upholding and protecting religion has largely been abandoned, He has also honored us with the privilege of preserving and serving the faith. In addition to all this, God Almighty has bestowed upon us countless other favors and blessings.
Even if a person possessed entire galaxies, they still could not purchase even one of these blessings. If you were to sell the Milky Way galaxy itself, could you buy the blessing of faith? Faith is such an immense favor granted by God to humanity that it is like a seed containing within it entire Paradises. If Paradise is to grow and flourish like a tree, it will grow out of this very seed.
A person who becomes aware of all these blessings realizes that they stand under a comprehensive debt of gratitude that can never truly be repaid. For every blessing calls for gratitude in return. In the Qur’an, God says, “Be grateful to Me, and do not fall into ingratitude.”[4] In this way, believers are encouraged to give thanks. Therefore, our ablution, prayers, fasting, almsgiving, and other acts of worship are each, in themselves, expressions of gratitude. Yet the blessings of God are so countless that the deeds a person performs are never sufficient to fully repay them. It is impossible to thank Him as He truly deserves or to praise Him adequately.
Thus, fulfilling gratitude for these blessings ultimately depends on the vastness of our intentions. If, through our deeds, we are able to fill only one compartment of a gratitude that contains a thousand compartments, then we must complete the rest through our intentions. More accurately, God will look at our determination, striving, effort, and comprehensive intention to fill all those compartments with gratitude, and through His mercy, He will complete what is lacking. As believers, we must recognize the blessings we possess and respond to them with worship, remembrance, reflection, praise, and gratitude. Whenever we remember them, we should say “alhamdulillah” (“All praise belongs to God”) with our hearts, our tongues, and our actions. And where our praise and gratitude fall short, God willing, Allah (glorified and exalted is He) will complete those deficiencies on the basis of our intention and sincerity.
Intention changes the very nature of things. It gives actions a deeper dimension, transforms worldly acts into acts oriented toward the Hereafter, and even imparts a Divine color and meaning to matters that are purely human and earthly. The essential issue is whether a person can bind themselves to God, dedicate themselves to a lofty cause, and correctly determine what should take priority and what should remain secondary. As for those who are conscious that their fundamental duty is servitude to God, and who display a prophetic determination in fulfilling the responsibilities of their position, it is undoubtedly God Almighty Who will turn their one into a thousand.
[1] Bediuzzaman, Şuâlar, pp. 385–386 (The Twenty-Fourth Word, Fifth Branch, Second Fruit).
[2] See: al-Bukhari, Bad’ al-Wahy 1, Iman 41, Itq 6, Manaqib al-Ansar 45, Ayman 23, Hiyal 1; Muslim, Imarah 155.
[3] In this sense, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The intention of the believer is better than their deed.” (al-Tabarani, al-Mu‘jam al-Kabir 6/185–186; al-Bayhaqi, al-Sunan al-Sughra, p. 20)
[4] Qur’an, al-Baqarah 2:152.
