36: Niyyah - The Potential of Choosing with Conscience
[Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)]
Life is full of choices
As human beings, who are rational beings; we analyze the opportunities that we have and choose to act or react in a particular way. As rational beings with free will, our ability to reflect and make choices gives each of us untold power to affect our lives. Many choices don't require serious forethought because they're not significant. (What color clothes to wear or which meal to eat). In such cases, it is okay to rely on impulses and preferences. But the greater the potential consequences of our choice the more need there is for careful decision-making. When we respond to impulse without reflection we stand a good chance of making a bad decision.
Choices have Consequences
Some everyday decisions have potentially momentous consequences (e.g. stealing, cheating, experimenting with drugs, getting involved in an intimate relationship, lying to teacher/parent...).
Other seemingly insignificant choices must be treated as important because a wrong choice could have serious and lasting impact, (eg. whether to study for a test, cut school, misrepresenting the truth, talking back to a teacher/referee, aggressively confronting someone, quitting a job ...) Though it can be difficult to overcome impulses and resist temptations, we always have the power to choose what we think (our attitudes), what we say (our words), and what we do (our actions).
Decisions are most significant when ...
- faith and ethics are at stake
- serious physical or emotional injury may result
- important relationships can be jeopardized
- reputations, integrity or credibility could be undermined
- important long term goals could be endangered
Our choices can set in motion events that affect people and alter the future in serious and lasting ways. We are therefore morally responsible for the consequences of our choices.
Making good choices requires ...
- moral maturity (aptitude to distinguish wrong from right and then to choose the right)
- an ability and willingness to act ethically and rationally rather than impulsively
- capacity to evaluate situations and anticipate potential consequences.
Good People making Bad Choices
Be conscious, be careful, be wise and think long term. When good people make bad choices, the results are always damaging. There is a recurring nightmare of caring parents whose children seriously damage themselves physically or emotionally by unwise decisions; engaging in reckless conduct to impress friends, endangering themselves through drugs, illicit relationships, or getting involved with irresponsible persons or associating with manipulative or selfish people. The Prophet warned us regarding that a person tends to be on the lifestyle of those he/she associates with, so be careful whom you befriend.
Choices shape Character
Our choices reveal our personality as much as they shape our character. Wise indeed is the advice ...
Watch your thoughts because they affect your attitude, Watch your attitudes because they sway your
thoughts, Watch your thoughts because they influence your actions, Watch your actions because they
become your habits, Watch your habits because they establish your character, Watch your character
because it determines your destiny.
Remember, the more aware we become of the choices we make every single day, (choices about our thoughts,
our attitudes, our words, our actions and our reactions); the more power we have over our own destiny.
After all, what is life, but a sum total of the consequences of the choices we make.
The Power of Intentional Living
It is important to realize that the more conscious we are of our choices and the more we reflect
upon our options the greater the potential of deciding wisely and the greater the probability that we
will not regret our actions/reactions.
One sure way of taking charge of our lives is accepting moral responsibility for our choices. The
concept of niyyah is central to Islamic faith and practice. Niyyah means preceding every
significant decision or act with an intention. This intention implies that you are conscious of your
choice of action and that your life is lived intentionally and purposefully and thus each action is
evaluated by the intention that precedes it.