إنما الأعمال بالنيات
Imām al-Nawawī opens the Forty with a ḥadīth reported on the authority of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (raḍ. ʿanhu), in which the Prophet ﷺ said that actions are only by intentions, and a person will have only of an act what they intended by it.
The ḥadīth is reported in both Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (the very first ḥadīth of the collection) and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, with a chain that runs back through Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī to Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Taymī to ʿAlqamah ibn Waqqāṣ al-Laythī to ʿUmar.
The position of this ḥadīth at the head of so many collections is deliberate. Imām al-Bukhārī placed it first because he held, as did many before him, that every action of the religion turns on what the heart intends by it. Worship without intention is empty; permitted action with the right intention becomes worship.
The ḥadīth also establishes a structural principle in fiqh: the legal weight of an action is determined by its niyyah. A migration is judged by what one migrated for. A prayer is judged by whether the worshipper intended it, and which prayer they intended. A fast becomes worship by the intent that frames it.
عَنْ أَمِيرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَبِي حَفْصٍ عُمَرَ بْنِ الْخَطَّابِ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ: سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَقُولُ: ”إنَّمَا الْأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّاتِ، وَإِنَّمَا لِكُلِّ امْرِئٍ مَا نَوَى، فَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ إلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ فَهِجْرَتُهُ إلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ، وَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ لِدُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا أَوْ امْرَأَةٍ يَنْكِحُهَا فَهِجْرَتُهُ إلَى مَا هَاجَرَ إلَيْهِ”.
On the authority of the leader of the believers, Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (raḍ. ʿanhu), he said: I heard the Prophet ﷺ say, "Verily actions are according to intentions, and for every man is (the reward for) that which he intends. So whoever migrates for Allāh and His Messenger, his migration will be for Allāh and His Messenger. And whosoever migrates for a worldly matter, or for a woman to marry, their migration will be for that which they intended."
This ḥadīth is one of the central tenets of Islam. Imām al-Shāfiʿī and Imām Aḥmad call it a third of knowledge. Imām al-Bayhaqī and others explain that the actions of a person are of three kinds, those of the heart, the tongue, and the body, and so niyyah, as the action of the heart, is one of these three. Imām al-Shāfiʿī also notes that this ḥadīth relates to seventy chapters of fiqh; other ʿulamāʾ have called it a third of Islam.
When the ʿulamāʾ author a work, they generally begin with this ḥadīth, as Imām al-Bukhārī did. By beginning with it, and dispensing with a khuṭbah, Imām al-Bukhārī indicates that any action done for other than the sake of Allāh ﷻ is not accepted: there will be no reward for it in this world, nor in the hereafter. It was for this reason that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī said it was necessary for anyone authoring a book to begin with this ḥadīth, so that it might serve as a reminder to the student of knowledge to keep their intentions pure.
This ḥadīth became famous in later generations, having been gharīb1 at first and then widespread.2 None narrates this ḥadīth from the Prophet ﷺ except ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (raḍ. ʿanhu), and none narrates from ʿUmar except ʿAlqamah ibn Abī Waqqāṣ; none narrates from ʿAlqamah except Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Taymī, and none narrates from Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm except Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī. From Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, however, the ḥadīth spread and became famous, with more than two hundred persons narrating from him.
Verily actions are according to intentions.
The word إنَّمَا is usually used in the sense of confinement, so that the line might also be rendered, "Verily actions are only according to their intentions". إنَّمَا is, however, occasionally used in a wider sense, without the meaning of confinement. The Qurʾān3 says ﴿إِنَّمَا أَنتَ نَذِيرٌ﴾, "You are only a warner", and we know that the Prophet ﷺ is not only a warner but bears many other qualities besides, such as being a giver of glad tidings.4 The reading we may take here,5 and Allāh ﷻ knows best, is that the confinement is with respect to the outcome of the action.
This ḥadīth tells us that actions are not accounted for without niyyah. The actions in question are actions in sharīʿah: this encompasses ʿibādāt in general, such as wuḍūʾ, ghusl, ṣalāh, zakāh, ṣawm, ḥajj, iʿtikāf, and the like.
The schools differ over whether intention is a necessary component of certain acts of worship. The Shawāfiʿ hold that intention is required for wuḍūʾ, while the Aḥnāf hold that wuḍūʾ is complete without it. The Aḥnāf accordingly read this ḥadīth as "Verily (the rewards of) actions are according to intentions"; the full reward for wuḍūʾ requires niyyah, but a wuḍūʾ performed without niyyah is still valid. The Shawāfiʿ, by contrast, hold that without niyyah the wuḍūʾ is not valid at all.
And for every man is that which he intends.
Imām al-Nawawī notes further that the niyyah must be specified: a man cannot pray his farḍ ṣalāh while intending a nafl ṣalāh; he must intend the particular prayer he is performing.
So whoever migrates for Allāh and His Messenger, his migration will be for Allāh and His Messenger.
The word hijrah means to leave, and specifically to leave and abandon one's home. The one who leaves his home for the sake of Allāh ﷻ and His Messenger ﷺ will receive his reward in the hereafter.
And whosoever migrates for a worldly matter, or for a woman to marry, their migration will be for that which they intended.
The one who undertakes hijrah not for Allāh ﷻ and His Messenger ﷺ but for some worldly gain has no reward in the hereafter; his reward is only in this world, that is, whatever he set out for.
Imām al-Nawawī gives two possible reasons6 why migration to marry a woman is mentioned. The first is the narration about a man who emigrated from Makkah to Madīnah with the intention to marry a woman called Umm Qays, rather than for the virtue of hijrah; he is known accordingly as Muhājir Umm Qays, the emigrant for Umm Qays.
The second possible reason is that travelling for a woman is one example of travelling for the dunyā, and is mentioned specifically7 as a caution against the practice.
This is narrated by the two Imāms of the muḥaddithīn.
The authenticity of this ḥadīth is agreed upon. Imām al-Bukhārī narrates it on more than one occasion8 in his Ṣaḥīḥ, and Imām Muslim brings it at the end of the chapter of jihād.9 It is also found in the four other principal collections of ḥadīth.10
ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Mubārak is reported to have said:
Even when eating or drinking, the intention should be that you have the strength to worship Allāh ﷻ, or that you can support your family.
Ask yourself what your goal is in the action: are you doing it for the pleasure of others, or for the pleasure of Allāh ﷻ? Once your intention is purified, if doubts persist, recognise them as the work of Shayṭān, who seeks to keep you from a good deed.
Intentions need to be renewed. We often begin a thing sincerely, only for that sincerity to fade with time. The remedy is constant review.
Only one narrator of the ḥadīth. ↩
مشهور (mashhūr). ↩
Sūrat Hūd 11:12. ↩
Sūrat Sabaʾ 34:28. ↩
Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd, Sharḥ al-Arbaʿīn al-Nawawiyyah, 10. ↩
al-Nawawī, al-Minhāj fī Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, commentary on ḥadīth 1907. ↩
Also known as ذكر التخصيص بعد العام. ↩
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1, 54, 2529, 3898, 5070, 6689 and 6953. ↩
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1907. ↩
Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah and al-Nasāʾī. ↩
See Ibn Rajab, Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa al-Ḥikam, 42. ↩
The ḥadīth of Jibrīl, in which the angel questions the Prophet ﷺ about Islām, Īmān, Iḥsān, and the signs of the Hour, with phrase-by-phrase commentary.
The opening ḥadīth of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, narrated by ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb, on the principle that deeds are judged by their intentions, with notes on the Bukhārī isnād.
Nawawī's third ḥadīth: Islam is built on five pillars, the shahādah, ṣalāh, zakāh, ḥajj, and the fast of Ramaḍān.
ولا يقتضي التكرار و لا يحتمله: and the amr does not demand repetition, nor does it encompass it. The difference between mūjib and muḥtamil, and how the Aḥnāf account for the repetition of acts of worship through their asbāb.
