Benefits of the Chapter.
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The Shaykh : The point is his statement: "The deed in which one seeks the Face of Allah," then he said: "In it is success", meaning the hadith of Sa'd.
And in this is evidence that it is necessary for a person to be sincere in his intention and to constantly keep in mind that he wants the Face of Allah with his deeds. In reality, people are divided in this matter into three categories:
A category that were heedless of the intention, so their worship became habits.
And a category that remembered, so their habits became worship.
And a category between these two, so their worship became worship and their habits became habits.
And who are the perfect ones? Those who remembered until their habits became worship. How do their habits become worship? Eating, drinking, sleeping, and intercourse, and the like of that—are all of these habits? So when a person intends by them to draw near to Allah the Exalted and Majestic, it becomes worship, and he benefits from it. So if he has breakfast or dinner, he mentions Allah when eating and praises Allah when finishing. And likewise in drinking, and he intends by his eating to strengthen himself for the obedience of Allah, and he intends by it to enjoy the generosity, bounty, and favor of Allah the Exalted and Majestic, then the dinner becomes worship. As for the second category, the other extreme, you find him coming to pray, performing wudu, and coming to pray out of habit. His habit is that when he gets up, he goes to perform wudu and pray, and so on. He does not keep in mind that he came to the mosque to worship Allah, to stand before Him, and to converse with Him through his words and supplication. So he has much heedlessness, and his worship turns into habits. As for the middle group, they do worship for the sake of worship and habit for the sake of habit. These people, without doubt, have fulfilled the obligatory and carried it out, but the first group are the perfect ones.
And in this is evidence that it is necessary for a person to be sincere in his intention and to constantly keep in mind that he wants the Face of Allah with his deeds. In reality, people are divided in this matter into three categories:
A category that were heedless of the intention, so their worship became habits.
And a category that remembered, so their habits became worship.
And a category between these two, so their worship became worship and their habits became habits.
And who are the perfect ones? Those who remembered until their habits became worship. How do their habits become worship? Eating, drinking, sleeping, and intercourse, and the like of that—are all of these habits? So when a person intends by them to draw near to Allah the Exalted and Majestic, it becomes worship, and he benefits from it. So if he has breakfast or dinner, he mentions Allah when eating and praises Allah when finishing. And likewise in drinking, and he intends by his eating to strengthen himself for the obedience of Allah, and he intends by it to enjoy the generosity, bounty, and favor of Allah the Exalted and Majestic, then the dinner becomes worship. As for the second category, the other extreme, you find him coming to pray, performing wudu, and coming to pray out of habit. His habit is that when he gets up, he goes to perform wudu and pray, and so on. He does not keep in mind that he came to the mosque to worship Allah, to stand before Him, and to converse with Him through his words and supplication. So he has much heedlessness, and his worship turns into habits. As for the middle group, they do worship for the sake of worship and habit for the sake of habit. These people, without doubt, have fulfilled the obligatory and carried it out, but the first group are the perfect ones.