Achieving High Aims by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah

Al-Fawa’id

Achieving high aims depends upon having a firm intention and a strong will. Whoever loses them will never attain one’s goals, because when one’s intention is firm, it adheres to the plan, and if one’s will is strong, the servant will walk along the right way that leads to that aim. 


Having a strong will opens the way and a resolute intention focuses one on the aim. If one’s aim coincides with the way that reaches to it, one will be successful.

If one’s intention is weak, one will not have a high aim. If one’s will is not strong, it will (also) not lead one to the aim. The whole matter depends upon the will and the intention of the servant, and they will never be achieved without the following:

• First, neglecting innovations which people make.
• Second, abandoning worldly benefits and vain pleasures, which hinder one from one’s way and aim.
• Third, purification of one’s heart from any vain desires that will distract one’s intention.

Malik ibn Dinar said, ‘Whoever does not find delight in the speech of Allah and instead finds it in the speech of people, then surely his knowledge has taken a plunge, his heart has become blind and his life has become wasted.’