How important are they in islam?
Very :)
Asalamu Alaikum,
Hmm.. I thought someone would be able to give you a quality answer before I could, but seeing as how no one has yet, I will quote for you the following Hadith:
On the authority of Hadrat Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (RA) who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) say:
"Actions are but by intention and every man shall have but that which he intended. Thus he whose migration was for Allah and His Messenger, his migration was for Allah and His Messenger, and he whose migration was to achieve some worldly benefit or to take some woman in marriage, his migration was for that for which he migrated." (Bukhari, Muslim)
By this hadith we can see that whenever we do something, we should do it with a pure intention of pleasing Allah (SWT). Basically intentions are important because they define the rewards for your actions.
W'salam
[This message has been edited by Yacoob (edited June 15, 1999).]