Intentions

QUESTION

Ustad, I wanted to know since we are human and not perfect, will Allah forgive corruption of intention or not being mindful of intention due to being heedless that intention matters? Jazakum Allahu Khairan for stressing on intention so much but there were many many times I was not mindful and I just did something because it was considered a good deed and didn’t inspect my intention. I do pray to Allah to make my deeds for His sake. Will this compensate for any deficiencies in intention?

ANSWER

It depends on how it impacts the action. So if it’s an action in which Niyyah is Fardh, it is obviously impacted.
But in general good deeds, if Niyyah is not present, we will lose out on reward. I’m hopeful that a general intention will somewhat cover that. For example, a person makes the intention from time to time that they are earning money to please Allah and fulfil his command, not to pursue dunya. They don’t have to now repeat it every day on the way to work because they’ve made their motivation clear. But a daily repetition would be better and more rewarding.
It is only sinful when there is an opposite evil intention, like the intention or motivation to show off or gain fame etc., from religious acts.