Hazrat Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:

 “Innamal a‘maalu binniyyaat, wa innama likullimri’in ma nawaa”

“Actions are judged by intentions, and every person will have only what they intended.”

Reference:

Sahih al-Bukhari — Hadith #1

Sahih Muslim — Hadith #1907

Let’s decode this hadith with a simple example.

Bring an onion and look at it carefully. When you start peeling it, you will find layer upon layer. As you keep removing the layers, the onion becomes smaller and smaller. In the end, if only a tiny piece remains, can you cook food with it? Of course not. It is too little to add to the dish. It cannot show its essence — its smell and its taste. It becomes useless. We need a proper amount of onion to give flavor to the food.

Now let’s understand these layers that we removed.

For example, you started going to pray in a mosque. You took a bath, applied perfume, dressed nicely, walked to the mosque, and then offered your prayer.

But think about your intentions:

You took a bath just to look clean in front of people.

You applied perfume so people would like you.

You dressed well to impress others.

You chose a specific route to the mosque because you wanted to meet a certain person on the way.

Then you prayed.

In all of this, you may only receive the reward for the prayer itself. But if you had done all these things purely for the sake of Allah — bathing for purity, applying perfume for the mosque, preparing yourself respectfully for worship — then your reward would be much greater.

And if you even prayed only so that people would think you are a good person, it is like peeling an onion down to its last tiny piece and even that piece is gone— the essence is gone.

This is the meaning of the hadith: intention changes the essence of every action. It can increase its value greatly, or it can completely destroy it. Because intentions are the seeds it should be pure if you want the plant out of it

Before Allah, even the smallest part of an onion is enough as an offering. But if that tiny part is not given with sincerity, then a person may find themselves in serious loss.