Everything begins with an intention. In the Book of Hadith, which are the sayings of the Prophet, or the actions of the Prophet, the first Hadith is the fact that everything begins with an intention. So we all set our intentions before we do anything. And the appropriate way to set an intention is to say, “Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim,” so we set our intention in the name of God, the merciful and the compassionate.
Now, what is it that we do when we set an intention, and what are the choices that we make when we set an intention?
There were two men walking down the bazaar in Baghdad in the 1200’s, and one of them said to the other, “Look over to the left, the Great Sheikh of the city is dressed as a commoner and he’s walking through the bazaar.”
And his friend said, “How do you know?”
And he said, “I go to see his talks every once in a while and I recognize him.”
He said, “Are you sure?”
He said, “Well, we can be sure, I read palms. Let’s go over and I’ll shake his hand, just to say hello, and I’ll look at his hand and we’ll be positive.”
So he went over, he bumped into him, he excused himself, shook hands and said, “Assalamu alaikum,” and he looked at his palm and he walked away. The Sheikh went to the left, he went to the right.
And his friend said, “So, what did you see?”
And he said, “It’s him. I saw his hand, it’s him.”
And then his friend was so excited he screamed out, “The Great Sheikh of Baghdad is here! He’s over there to the left!”
And people screamed back, “How do you know?”
And the friend said, “Because my friend reads palms and he read his palm.”
And they continued to go to the right, then the entire, everybody who heard this, started running towards the right screaming, “Read my palm! Read my palm! Read my palm!”
Well, when those people were running towards the palm reader they were setting an intention.
Their intention was they would rather know about their worldly life than know about their spiritual life, and they chose the palm reader over the Sheikh. That’s an intention.
The choice that you make comes about through your choice in existence, and those choices show what your true intentions are. So you may say, “My intention is to learn about Allah,” but if you’re chasing the palm reader, you’re intention is not to learn about Allah. Your intention is to learn about your life in the dunya, in the world.
So if we understand that our choices come down to: do we choose the world or do we choose God, we begin to understand an important aspect in our existence. We begin to understand that intention, at its core, at its root, is about this world or the next world. Are we looking for joy and honor in this world or are we focused on the reality of our existence, which indicates that this is but a small part of our journey, and are we preparing ourself for the longer part of our journey?
Our true destiny is based on our consciousness, and it comes down to this…
