Intentions???

Assalamun alaikum

I wnated to know that if we are doing an action and forgot to make intention to do it for the sake of Allah can we make halfway...................what about say you've completed tyhe action and later on u realised that u didnt make the intention can u make the intention for the action u already carried out later on.....e.g helping some1 out out but you forgot to make the niyat after a while u realilsed u didnt make the niyat but u finished helping that person out can u still intent dat u did it for the sake of Allah SWT

Wa' Alaikumsalam Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh.

You don't need to uttering your niyah when you want to do something good. In example, when you want to help an old person who wants to cross the street , you don't need to say "My intention is .....". Just help him/her, InshaAllah, you will get reward.

nutty said:

Assalamun alaikum

I wnated to know that if we are doing an action and forgot to make intention to do it for the sake of Allah can we make halfway...................what about say you've completed tyhe action and later on u realised that u didnt make the intention can u make the intention for the action u already carried out later on.....e.g helping some1 out out but you forgot to make the niyat after a while u realilsed u didnt make the niyat but u finished helping that person out can u still intent dat u did it for the sake of Allah SWT

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Salaam.. any thing that you do, is because you want to do or you have the urge to do, or you have the feeling to do. All of these signify your, intention and if you do without intention something, then either you are dreaming or unconscious like walking in your sleep or anything similar like you are under the influence of drugs, alcohol etc.

So other than the situations i've pointed out, every time any one is sober or normal, they do something because they know what they want to do, meaning they before doing any action INTEND to do it.

And if you are not drunk, and not dreaming and walking while sleeping or under the influence of drugs, and yet you did something of which you were not aware of, means probably that you were not in your senses, or you were insane. Please don't take this as negative, just giving you example, i am sorry if you did not like me saying that, my Intention was just to explain . So its impossible to do any act, while a person is in his complete senses and he would not have intended to.

However there are instances when one intends to do something and what takes place is something else. Then in Islam, Prophet said "actions will be judged by Intentions." .. and so you will not bear the burden of wrongdoing if the act went wrong but your intention was pure.

Peace be with you

بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم و الصلاة و السلام على خير المرسلين و إمام المتقين و الحمد الله و السلام عليكم و رحمة الله





Q: I forget to form the intention when doing most deeds. What should I do?


Praise be to Allaah.
Intention (niyyah) is an important matter, as it is the spirit of deeds through which deeds become valid, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Actions are but by intentions and each person will have but that which he intended.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari (1) and Muslim (1907).

The intention turns permissible deeds into acts or worship, hence we should pay attention to it and make it for the sake of Allaah, free from any element of showing off.

It should be noted that intentions are of two types:

1 – Obligatory intention, without which an act of worship is not valid, such as the intention in doing wudoo’, praying, paying zakaah, fasting and doing Hajj. This intention is something that no one can do without. If a person does wudoo’ to pray, touch the Mus-haf or in order to be pure (taahir), he has formed the intention. Intending to pray or intending to remove impurity is forming the intention when doing wudoo’.

When a man stands to pray, knowing that this is Zuhr prayer, for example, and he intends to offer the prayer and gets up to do it it, then he has formed the intention. It is not essential – and in fact it is not prescribed – to say out loud, “I intend to pray Zuhr prayer” etc, as some people do. This was not narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and the place for the intention is in the heart.

Similarly, if a person decides at night that he will fast on the following day, then he has formed the intention of fasting. In fact, his eating sahoor shows that he is intending to fast.

It is difficult for a person to forget to form the intention in such cases.

2 – The second type of intention is that which is mustahabb in order to attain reward. This is what some people forget, which is to keep the intention in mind when doing permissible things, so that they will be acts of worship, such as eating, drinking and sleeping with the intention of strengthening oneself to do acts of worship, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “You will never spend anything that you spend for the sake of Allaah, but you will be rewarded for it, even the morsel of food that you put in your wife’s mouth.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari (56).

Mu’aadh (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: I sleep and I get up (to pray at night), and I seek reward for my sleep as I seek reward for my getting up. Narrated by al-Bukhaari (4088).

He (may Allaah be pleased with him) sought reward for his sleep just as he sought reward for his getting up to pray at night, because he intended by sleeping to gain strength to do acts of worship.

Al-Haafiz Ibn Hajar said in al-Fath: What this means is that he sought reward by resting just as he sought reward by striving, because if the intention in resting is to enable one to do acts of worship, one attains reward. End quote.

What helps to keep this intention in mind is deliberating, thinking and not being hasty. So you should think about what you are intending to do, take stock of yourself before acting, think about whether it is halaal or haraam, then look at your intention: what do you want from this? Every time you take stock of yourself and think before acting, this will remind you about forming the intention, until it becomes second nature and a habit that you adopt, so that you will not enter or exit, eat or drink, give or withhold, without having an intention in doing so, thus most of your time will become times of worship.

We ask Allaah to help us and you to do that.

And Allaah knows best.

Islam QA

Brasco said:

Mu’aadh (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: I sleep and I get up (to pray at night), and I seek reward for my sleep as I seek reward for my getting up. Narrated by al-Bukhaari (4088).

He (may Allaah be pleased with him) sought reward for his sleep just as he sought reward for his getting up to pray at night, because he intended by sleeping to gain strength to do acts of worship.

Al-Haafiz Ibn Hajar said in al-Fath: What this means is that he sought reward by resting just as he sought reward by striving, because if the intention in resting is to enable one to do acts of worship, one attains reward.

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Some of this I find confusing, so pardon me if I plow ground already covered.


Surely what people do is the result of their intending to do something. As described above, the outcomes may very from their intentions because they were not able to fully execute their intention in the way they had hoped. But whatever the degree the outcome matches or does not match the intended outcome, that there was an outcome at all is the result of an individual intending to do something. That part I understand.

But there is a part I don't understand, and that is one part of the the idea that there is a reward for intentions. Now, again, I get the idea that one might have good intentions and in that sense Allah might reward someone for the good they intended to do, even if a different result than that good was the actual outcome. So, Allah rewards one for his/her intentions. That is pretty much the same as what I said above. But there is another part to this aspect of being rewarded for intentions that doesn't make sense, and it makes so little that I suspect I am hearing it wrong. So, I'll write what I am hearing, and then ask someone to correct me on what I've misheard.

What I am hearing is that there is a specific reward for intentions. So, if I intend to get up early in the morning to worship Allah, I can get a reward for that intention, even if I don't actually attempt to actually follow through and do it. Also, if I do get up and worship Allah, I get rewarded not only for the act of worshipping, but for having made formed that intention the night before. So the person who forms an intention, but then hits the snooze alarm and never executes the intention gets rewarded for as if they had actually followed through, and the one who follows through gets rewarded for more than just what he actually did, but for the thought as well.

But even more than this, it seems to me that in some descriptions of intention, what people are actually intending is primarily to get a reward for intending. Thus the focus of the person intent is more on themselves and creating a scenario where they have placed Allah in the position of being indebted to them (for they have "earned" their reward by their act of having intentions; when the reality is that they only care for themselves and the reward and not the actual good for which they receive this reward is little more than an afterthought. That seems like when the saying, the road to hell is paved with good intentions would be appropriate, for such a person is not really focused on doing good or serving Allah, but focused on one's self. Surely such intentions can be good only in their own mind, and such self-absorbed intentions would not rewarded by Allah.

OK. So, what is it that I am mis-hearing with regard to this concept of "intentions"?

Grace Seeker said:

What I am hearing is that there is a specific reward for intentions. So, if I intend to get up early in the morning to worship Allah, I can get a reward for that intention, even if I don't actually attempt to actually follow through and do it. Also, if I do get up and worship Allah, I get rewarded not only for the act of worshipping, but for having made formed that intention the night before. So the person who forms an intention, but then hits the snooze alarm and never executes the intention gets rewarded for as if they had actually followed through, and the one who follows through gets rewarded for more than just what he actually did, but for the thought as well.

But even more than this, it seems to me that in some descriptions of intention, what people are actually intending is primarily to get a reward for intending. Thus the focus of the person intent is more on themselves and creating a scenario where they have placed Allah in the position of being indebted to them (for they have "earned" their reward by their act of having intentions; when the reality is that they only care for themselves and the reward and not the actual good for which they receive this reward is little more than an afterthought. That seems like when the saying, the road to hell is paved with good intentions would be appropriate, for such a person is not really focused on doing good or serving Allah, but focused on one's self. Surely such intentions can be good only in their own mind, and such self-absorbed intentions would not rewarded by Allah.

OK. So, what is it that I am mis-hearing with regard to this concept of "intentions"?

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I think there is some mis-understanding here. When a person intends at night to get up before dawn and pray, then he has to take the necessary measures to ensure that he gets up on time and is able to pray. But if he thinks he has got the reward for simply intending, and now he can snooze the alarm and sleep peacefully, then in fact he has cancelled his intention of praying. But if he extends his utmost effort in getting up and praying, yet for any reason is unable to do so, he gets rewarded for the complete act for which he had intended.

There's some more it. If a person actually performs a deed after intending it beforehand, he gets 10 times the reward for that act. That's because Allah says:

But if a person intends for a bad deed, and commits that evil, he will be recounted for only 1 bad deed.
And if a person intends for a bad deed, but later repents and does not commit that act, he gets rewarded for 1 good deed. That's because repenting from sin is also a good deed.

Thanks. That was helpful. Before your post, it seemed to me before that people were saying that Allah rewarded one for good intentions alone, even without the actually attempt at following through. Now, I hear you say that was a misunderstanding.

Bump and thanks. Good post.

:thumbs_up