A Sign To Know If You Are A Sincere Believer

A Sign To Know If You Are A Sincere Believer

If you did every single act of worship on earth — you gave zakah and sadaqah, and you fasted and you prayed and you prayed the night prayer, and you built masajid and you built hospitals and you built schools, and you did everything on earth — but you did not have a sincere intention to please Allah, it is nothing on the Day of Judgment. It will be dust. It will be nothing.

The First Three Thrown Into the Fire

It is enough for me to tell you that the Prophet ﷺ informed us that the first three people to be thrown into the Fire:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1905)

The first person is somebody who said, "I am fighting for the sake of Allah" — they claimed that, but they only did it so that someone could say, "Look at that brave man."

The second person to be thrown into the Fire is someone who used to recite the Quran, but they did it only to be called a reciter.

The third is somebody who used to be a scholar, but they did it only to be appreciated, to get the attention of people. And so they will be the first to be thrown into the Fire.

Of course, nobody who has Iman will be in the Fire forever — but nobody wants to taste that place, that pit, that dungeon in the bottom, with the pus and the bones and the heat. Nobody wants to go there.

But the only thing that ended up with them there is just one thing: they didn't have the right intention.

The Greatest Sign of Sincerity

One of the greatest signs of sincerity is always doubting your sincerity. Never be sure. Never feel safe. Always worry. You don't know — if I sleep at night and my soul were to be taken, where will I wake up? I don't know if my deeds were accepted by Allah.