Always Check your Intentions

Narrated 'Umar bin Al-Khattab:
I heard ALLAH's Messenger (sallallahu alayhi wasalam) saying,
"The reward of deeds depends upon the intentions and every person will get the reward according to what he has intended. So whoever emigrated for worldly benefits or for a woman to marry, his emigration was for what he emigrated for." [Sahih Bukhari,Book: 01 Book of Revelation,Hadith:01]

Ways to obtain ikhlas :

* Do righteous deeds - the more good deeds we do and hence get closer to Allah, the more sincere we will be.
* Before we do any deed we should firstly seek knowledge (ilm) - our actions/deeds should be guided by knowledge so that we do them in accordance to the Shariah.
* Do not give false impressions - do not make others believe that an action we did was good when it was not.
* Al-Imam Ahmad said: Before you do anything, check your intention (niyyah) -
ask yourself before performing an action: "Is it for the sake of ALLAH?"