71 – Ibn Ajlān said, “A deed is sound only through three things: fearing Allah, a good intention, and doing it correctly.”

72 – Al-Fudayl ibn Iyād said, “Allah, Mighty and Majestic, seeks only your intention and resolve from you.”

73 – Yūsuf ibn Asbāt said, “Preferring Allah, Mighty and Majestic, above all else is better than being slain in the cause of Allah.”

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā cited all of these reports in his book Sincerity and Intention.

74 – In the same work, he narrated through a disconnected chain from Umar, who said, “The best deeds are fulfilling what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has made obligatory; scrupulously avoiding what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has forbidden; and being sincere in seeking what is with Allah, Mighty and Majestic.”

This concludes what the hadith master Ibn Rajab al-Hanbalī cited in

The Compendium of Knowledge and Wisdom: A Commentary on Fifty Hadiths from the Prophet’s Comprehensive Sayings

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