What does Islam mean by sincerity (ikhlas) in worship and daily deeds?

Ikhlas means performing an act — whether prayer, charity, work, or a simple kindness — purely to seek Allah's pleasure, without seeking praise, reputation, or worldly gain through it. The Quran states that people "were not commanded except to worship Allah, being sincere to Him in religion" (98:5), making ikhlas a condition for an act's acceptance rather than an optional extra. The Prophet's foundational teaching on this is the hadith with which many scholars open their collections: "Actions are judged by intentions, and every person will have what they intended" (Sahih al-Bukhari 1), meaning identical outward acts can carry entirely different weight before Allah depending on the motive behind them. A person who gives charity to be seen as generous, or studies religion to be praised as knowledgeable, risks losing the reward despite the correct outward form. Sincerity does not require secrecy — public good deeds can be fully sincere too — but the driving motive must remain Allah's pleasure rather than human approval. Guarding ikhlas requires ongoing self-examination, since the desire for recognition can quietly creep into even genuinely good deeds without a person noticing at first.

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