Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa'l-Ḥikam 1: Intention as the Factory of Awareness and of Grasping Outcomes

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered at the American Imams Academy (AIA) on 22 March 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings upon our master and Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and upon his family and Companions. May Allah greet you, be pleased with you, and grant you lasting goodness, protection, wellbeing and security.

Today, God willing, we begin a new series with the book «Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Ḥikam» by Imam Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, spending some time with it every Sunday, God the Exalted willing. Ibn Rajab, may Allah have mercy on him, was one of the imams of the eighth century of the Hijra; the scholars praised him greatly, and he was among the meticulous and faithful transmitters. What he did in his book is that he explained the «Forty Ḥadīths» of Imam al-Nawawī and added to them ḥadīths that represent a kind of the foundations of the religion. We move directly to the point to save time; we ask Allah for blessing.

A Ḥadīth with Which Scholars Open Their Books

We are in the presence of the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: «إنما الأعمال بالنيات، وإنما لكل امرئ ما نوى؛ فمن كانت هجرته إلى الله ورسوله فهجرته إلى الله ورسوله، ومن كانت هجرته لدنيا يصيبها أو امرأة ينكحها فهجرته إلى ما هاجر إليه» (“Actions are but by intentions, and each person will have only what he intended; so whoever's migration was to Allah and His Messenger, his migration is to Allah and His Messenger, and whoever's migration was for worldly gain he would acquire or a woman he would marry, his migration is to that for which he migrated”)^[1]. The moment you find yourself before this ḥadīth you say: Glory be to Allah! Every time we begin speaking about anything, we find ourselves before this book. Then, most of the scholars of ḥadīth opened their books with this noble ḥadīth. So why was the beginning with this ḥadīth in particular?

The answer is that «إنما الأعمال بالنيات» (“Actions are but by intentions”) is the first starting point for every doer, in any action. And I can picture the Messenger of Allah ﷺ pausing at his words: the word «innamā» comes for restriction, so it indicates that there is no action except what is accompanied by an intention, and there is no intention that should not be accompanied by an action. It is as though he ﷺ awakens in you the faculty of perceiving what goes on in your mind, what your soul holds within, what your instincts move toward, and what the body begins to carry out. So we have an idea circulating in the mind, a movement stirring inside the human soul, a resolve with which the heart sets off, and then the body begins to move toward doing or leaving. We will come to many expressions of this in the course of this simple, brief explanation. So we have understood that intention is an important matter because action is not completed without it.

What Do We Understand from «Actions Are but by Intentions»?

Some say: we understand that the reward of actions is not given except on the basis of intention. So if I stand for prayer and say the takbīr, no reward will follow from my action unless I intended that I am doing such-and-such. The holders of this view distinguish between worship and habit; for them the reward of an action is tied to intention, and whoever does an action does not obtain its reward unless intention is present in it. Perhaps the example of prayer is not suitable here, but take the example of washing: you enter the shower and pour the lovely water over your whole body. Is this habit or worship? Did you wash to cool off in the heat, like someone for whom the heat became intense so he took a “shower”? Or did you want to warm up? Or did you want to clean your body after a long effort when you felt sweat in your clothes? Or did you wash as an act of worship to the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him?

And there are incidentals that accompany actions and distinguish the intention even if it is not in its complete, clear form. A man found that he had had a nocturnal emission, so he got up from his bed to his bathroom and washed. What is going on in the inner focus of awareness in this man? He is purifying himself from the major impurity that occurred, so he is preparing by this washing. So worship, that is, the intention, became part of the habit in the original thinking and focus before beginning the action. We took this example to show that whoever tied the reward of actions to intention gave an example like this.

So do we have another interpretation? Is an action considered in itself before Allah, Blessed and Exalted, unless it is tied to an intention, or not? That is: does the Lord of the worlds take into account the actions of creation, and is action taken into account in the life of people and in their collective affairs, or not? Take a doctor who sets out for his work without having the intention that he wants to benefit people with the illnesses that Allah has tried them with^[2]. He goes to his work in a natural, flowing manner, out of the habit he practices every day: early in the morning he washes his hands, puts on the gloves, enters the operating room, starts the first operation, then leaves it for a second, then a third in another place, and so on. These actions have become a habit for him. Are they taken into account among things without intention, or must they have intention before the Lord of the worlds? So I have two questions: the question of the Lord of Might's taking actions into account, and the question of the ordering of reward upon actions.

And some say jokingly: Good people, why do you tire yourselves with this division and tire us along with you? If Allah takes an action into account He rewards it, and we are done! And the bottom line is that we must look at the reward that follows from actions.

One of the Pillars upon Which the Religion Stands

Some scholars say that one of the secrets of the ḥadīth scholars' opening their books with this ḥadīth is that it is among the pillars upon which the whole religion stands. You set up four pillars, say, or three or five depending on the differing views of the people of knowledge, then you place the whole religion upon them. Let us put it in order: «Actions are but by intentions». Fine, where do I go with this intention? The ḥadīth of al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr tells me: «الحلال بين والحرام بين، وبينهما أمور مشتبهات» (“The lawful is clear and the unlawful is clear, and between them are doubtful matters”)^[3]. So I took the intention, then looked at where I am walking, and found that before me are two paths and I will set out on one of them: the lawful is clear and the unlawful is clear. Then the third ḥadīth comes and says: «إن الله طيّب لا يقبل إلا طيبًا» (“Allah is Pure and accepts only what is pure”). So if I walk the path of goodness and do not follow up on these pure things... Then the fourth ḥadīth: I should care about what is mine and not interfere in what is not mine, so it tells me: «من حسن إسلام المرء تركه ما لا يعنيه» (“Part of the excellence of a person's Islam is his leaving what does not concern him”). And some see that the religion stands on pillars like these, among them the ḥadīth «إنما الأعمال بالنيات وإنما لكل امرئ ما نوى» (“Actions are but by intentions, and each person will have only what he intended”).

What Is Meant by Intention?

So we ask the second question: what is meant by intention? I say: it is the stage of reasoning that precedes doing things and setting about them. Let us say it again so we remember it: the stage of reasoning that precedes doing things and setting about them. So I have stages: a stage of perception (what will I do?), then a stage of desire in which the idea is made attractive (“This action, why? Delicious! That's it, I'm with it, I liked the idea”), and if I love the idea we move to another level: “By Allah, this one is ready to be carried out, let's move.” That is, intention, which is the stage of reasoning, works in this region; then comes the stage of desire that makes the idea attractive to the soul; then the stage of purpose or will, after which the servant sets out to carry out the actions in his life.

Imagine that it is engraved in your memory, your mind, your intellect and your conscience: «Actions are but by intentions». Please join us, eat from the table. So you look within yourself: what am I eating, why am I eating, and what will follow from this food? In front of you is a selection of sweets, respectable Levantine work that came from the Levant, from Nablus, say... and I will upset you: this is kunāfa, so allow me to put it in front of you! The point is that it is in front of you. So the intention, which is the seat of reasoning, manages the matter in the mind. You ask me: what is this? I say: lawful, and made from what is lawful. Why do I eat it? Because I am hungry, or I desire it, or I like it. Then: what follows from it? The sugar will fly into the sky! So the permissible lawful thing turns into something forbidden or disliked based on what follows from it. So intention works at this stage, the stage of preliminary evaluation of whether to undertake the action or not. If a person remembers that this food harms him to this degree, does the idea move to the stage of desire? It does not, and so the will will not be present, and accordingly he will not undertake this action. Agreed?

And another wants to eat, and the food is perfectly natural, with whatever is in front of him, and his hand reaches for this and leaves that, because he knows that this harms him and that benefits him. And there are some therapeutic recipes in foods: if you eat plenty of vegetables, for instance, they are beneficial, they contain fiber, and this food strengthens the eye, and this strengthens such-and-such... So his undertaking these things with the intention present is the stage of reasoning and arousing awareness in the soul.

And you can imagine that the matter of intention moves from merely taking a bite in our lives to the level of industries, factories, innovations, inventions, trade in the billions, and a market in motion. This is what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ intended, and it is from the root of our religion; that is why we said it is among the ḥadīths on which the religion rests, and the religion encompasses every dimension of life. So the Prophet ﷺ wanted to awaken what is called perceptive awareness in the soul of every member of society.

Intention in the Details of Our Day

You know that when you return home and hear a word that bothers you, and you want to respond to it, and may our Lord grant us patience... then intention comes: what will I say? What will follow from what I say? And will the words I am going to say change the reality I am living or not? So you see yourself sometimes speaking and sometimes holding back, and you see yourself showing a pleased face, or an angry one, or a surprised one. Imagine that intention moves everything in you, so that even if you want to adorn yourself with your natural adornment before leaving your house, you ask: where am I going? Allah, Blessed and Exalted, said: ﴿يَا بَنِي آدَمَ خُذُوا زِينَتَكُمْ عِندَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ﴾ (“O children of Adam, take your adornment at every mosque.”) [al-Aʿrāf: 31]. So what is the level of taking adornment for a man if he sets out to the mosque? And if the one who will come to the mosque is a woman, what is her age, what is her beauty, what is the level of being looked at, and so on. Likewise wearing the iḥrām when we are at the Kaʿba, may Allah the Exalted bring us all to this blessed visit, O Lord of the worlds. And I alert my brothers with me, may Allah bless you: iḥrām does not mean walking around naked! You have eyes with which you see women, and women have eyes with which they look at men, so cover yourself as much as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ enjoined you. This is an ordinary matter, but intention here governs the making of the act. So imagine the stage of awakening perceptive awareness of the action I am practicing and what follows from it.

Is Intention the Same as Will?

Someone asks: is intention the same as will, or do they differ? Perhaps I answered that in the course of speaking. Here intention is accompanied by desire, and after desire the stage of will begins, which is that you say: that's it, the indicators are green, we will begin carrying out. So I have four stages: intention, then desire, then will, then execution.

And our master the Prophet ﷺ clarifies this idea for us in his ḥadīth: «إن العين لتزني، وإن الأذن لتزني، وإن اللسان...» (“The eye commits adultery, and the ear commits adultery, and the tongue...”)^[4]. The Prophet ﷺ mentions all the limbs that can arouse desire within a person, then says: «ثم يصدّق الفرج ذلك كله أو يكذّبه» (“Then the private part confirms all that or denies it.”) It is as though he moves it from the stage of perceptive awareness, then the stage of desire and craving, then the stage of execution or refraining from execution. That is why the Prophet ﷺ says: «من همَّ بحسنة...» (“Whoever intends a good deed...”)^[5]. This “intending” (hamm), at which of the levels do we place it, given that we agreed on four: intention, then desire, then will, then execution? Let us say that hamm is the start of moving toward the act: we have intention working at this point, the heart confirms it and it arouses the desire to obtain things, or we call it the matter of hamm, then the stage of will begins, which is that I gather my strength so that I can act, then comes the stage of execution. Either we place “hamm” at the stage of will, or at the stage of desire, or in between the two stages: desire is complete and will has begun, then he refrained. So what turned him back? The stage of reasoning. It is as though reasoning begins by shaping the idea, then pushes toward it or holds back from it. Can you picture it? «من همّ بحسنة فلم يعملها» (“Whoever intends a good deed and does not do it”), «ومن همّ بحسنة فعملها» (“and whoever intends a good deed and does it”)... the reward of Allah, Blessed and Exalted, follows from what goes on inside you and what begins in your soul.

The Stage of Will in the Qur'an

That is why the stage of will, which we spoke about, comes in the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted: ﴿مَّن كَانَ يُرِيدُ الْعَاجِلَةَ عَجَّلْنَا لَهُ فِيهَا مَا نَشَاءُ لِمَن نُّرِيدُ ثُمَّ جَعَلْنَا لَهُ جَهَنَّمَ يَصْلَاهَا مَذْمُومًا مَّدْحُورًا﴾ (“Whoever desires the immediate, We hasten for him therein whatever We will for whom We intend; then We have made for him Hell, which he will enter, blamed and banished.”) [al-Isrāʾ: 18]. Look at the punishment: ﴿جَعَلْنَا لَهُ جَهَنَّمَ يَصْلَاهَا مَذْمُومًا مَّدْحُورًا﴾. The meaning is not merely that We will punish him; rather We described the matter, and in the description is a rendering of the punishment as hideous, to indicate the hideousness of the act that leads to this punishment. Is it clear? Fine, what is the act? ﴿مَّن كَانَ يُرِيدُ الْعَاجِلَةَ﴾. And where is the problem? Is there not among the people sitting here someone who likes to have money to move with as he wishes, to buy things and fulfill the wishes of the kids? He tells me: no, the idea is not in this; the idea is that the immediate prevail over everything and become the first aim.

That is why we gave the example before this with the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted: ﴿فَأَمَّا مَنْ أُوتِيَ كِتَابَهُ بِيَمِينِهِ ۝ فَسَوْفَ يُحَاسَبُ حِسَابًا يَسِيرًا ۝ وَيَنقَلِبُ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهِ مَسْرُورًا﴾ (“Then as for he who is given his record in his right hand, he will be judged with an easy account, and return to his people in joy.”) [al-Inshiqāq: 7–9]. And returning to the family in joy, is it good or bad? This is good, this is reward. Then: ﴿وَأَمَّا مَنْ أُوتِيَ كِتَابَهُ وَرَاءَ ظَهْرِهِ ۝ فَسَوْفَ يَدْعُو ثُبُورًا ۝ وَيَصْلَىٰ…﴾ (“But as for he who is given his record behind his back, he will cry out for destruction, and he will enter…”) [al-Inshiqāq: 10–12]^[6]. And we are in the same surah and the same context! What is this? He has confused us: we said a moment ago that joy in the family is good, this is reward! But he tells me: be careful, if the interest of the kids prevails in the soul over what is beneath them, they become a burden on him. And here you can understand His saying, the Exalted: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنَّ مِنْ أَزْوَاجِكُمْ وَأَوْلَادِكُمْ…﴾ (“O you who believe, indeed among your spouses and your children…”) [al-Taghābun: 14]^[7]. How do we take in that some of my wife and kids are enemies to me? He says: the issue is not in them, the issue is with you: how do you see them? How do you magnify their standing? How do you make them above everything, or before everything, or the object of your complete concern? So the matter of intention comes in.

Then our Lord, glory be to Him, speaks to us in expressions that point to it. We have expressions such as His saying, the Exalted: ﴿لَّا خَيْرَ فِي كَثِيرٍ مِّن نَّجْوَاهُمْ إِلَّا مَنْ أَمَرَ بِصَدَقَةٍ أَوْ مَعْرُوفٍ أَوْ إِصْلَاحٍ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ ۚ وَمَن يَفْعَلْ ذَٰلِكَ ابْتِغَاءَ…﴾ (“There is no good in much of their private conversation, except for whoever enjoins charity or what is right or reconciliation between people. And whoever does that seeking…”) [al-Nisāʾ: 114]^[8]. So I have the word “seeking” (ibtighāʾ), and this matter of seeking, at which level of the stages shall I place it? It is as though the issue of intention is this region.

The Art of Making Awareness

By Allah, if we were to leave today with nothing but this sentence it would suffice: intention represents the stage of perceptive awareness; I want to perceive what I am doing, why I am doing it, and what will follow from it. You will find yourself before every step accompanied by an intention, because you understand what you do and do not act randomly. You are not like the rest of the creatures around you, doing whatever comes to their minds. You are a possessor of intention, that is, a possessor of reasoning, that is, a possessor of understanding, that is, a possessor of perception, that is, a possessor of awareness, that is, a possessor of whatever follows that of insight which the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, opens to people.

That is why you see, among the supplication we repeat every day^[9]: ﴿اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ﴾ (“Guide us to the straight path.”) [al-Fātiḥa: 6]. No one can say that the meaning of “Guide us to the straight path” is that the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, will carry you and say to you: come, my dear, from here, and place yourself here. This is physically and bodily not what happens; rather it is the guidance of the soul. And the soul does not move except after the mind perceives, and the mind is the seat of awareness with which you perceive: where am I? What am I doing? Why am I here? Where will I walk? Toward what am I moving? And what are the consequences that follow from the deeds and acts I practice?

And our Lord, glory be to Him, is very generous... no, this sentence is not right. One does not say “very generous”, because it would mean there is someone more generous. Rather He is al-Karīm, done, period. He is the Generous, glory be to Him, the Exalted; there is no generosity above His generosity and no generosity below His generosity, exalted is He on high. So He deals with us according to what goes on in our minds: if it is in our favor, and if it is not in our favor He forgives us for it and passes over it. And we ask Allah, Blessed and Exalted, for blessing in provisions and deeds.

The bottom line is that this ḥadīth aims at the art of making awareness and grasping outcomes. There is no Muslim on the face of the earth who should move randomly: going off with a woman to marry her without knowing the dimensions of this act, or leaving the kids and setting off... no, no, no! These erratic acts are not ours. Imagine if this condition were present in the work of each one of us: in other contexts this is called “the art of feasibility study”, meaning that before you begin a project you study all its dimensions, and before you take a step you study everything^[10].

Why Did the Prophet ﷺ Begin with “Bismillāh”?

Glory be to the Creator, the Most High! It has just come to my mind: why did the Prophet ﷺ begin everything in his life with the words “Bismillāh”? Because the word “Bismillāh” is a kind of asking permission. Imagine that you will ask permission before there is anything in your mind to ask permission for. It is as though you stand at the door and say: “Peace be upon you, people, come on, people of the house, Yā Allāh”; these are phrases with which I ask permission. Do I knock at the door randomly, or do I have a purpose in this place? So the Prophet ﷺ would mention the name of Allah in everything he did, and therefore intention was present in him in everything he did ﷺ.

The Summary in Three Points

Let us summarize in a few words:

First: Intention is the factory of perception and awareness in the soul and mind of each one of us.

Second: Intention includes habits and acts of worship, so a Muslim does nothing except with an intention inside him: I want to make so-and-so happy, I want to annoy so-and-so, I want to belittle so-and-so, I want to raise the standing of so-and-so, I want to learn for the sake of such-and-such, I want to go for the sake of such-and-such. The word “for the sake of” is the jurisprudence of outcomes, included in what is called the matter of intention.

Third: Know that your righteous intention is your door to acceptance before the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted. So if a servant has a righteous action together with a righteous intention, the servant is rewarded for his intention and for the righteous action. And if a servant has a righteous intention and a corrupt action follows from it, what do we do in this case? One person offers another a plate and strikes him with the knife and wounds him, then says: By Allah, my intention was good, I wanted to give him medicine... What happened? My intention was such-and-such! Here the judge sets up the balance between the act that was accompanied by a good intention, because a righteous intention has circumstantial indications that revolve around it and from which rulings of fiqh are derived, and what followed from the act. If it is within his ability to return the rights to their owners, he may do so. And there is another matter that belongs more to the science of judgeship than to fiqh.

We ask Allah, Blessed and Exalted, to bring us by our intentions to Paradise, to make us among the people of righteous intentions as long as we live, and to write us among the learners until we meet Him, glory be to Him, the Exalted. May Allah soothe your hearts, be pleased with you, Blessed and Exalted, and make you happy. O Allah, amen.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth «Actions are but by intentions» is agreed upon, from the ḥadīth of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, may Allah be pleased with him. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: In the automatic transcript there is a garbled phrase here (“he wants to bring to life mawāq with what Allah tried them with of illnesses”), and the most likely meaning from the context (benefiting the sick) has been retained. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth of al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr, may Allah be pleased with him, is agreed upon. The ḥadīth «Allah is Pure and accepts only what is pure» was narrated by Muslim from the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayra, and the ḥadīth «Part of the excellence of a person's Islam is his leaving what does not concern him» is from the Forty Ḥadīths of al-Nawawī. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth, in similar wording, is in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him, with the wording «The eye's adultery is the look, the ear's adultery is listening, the tongue's adultery is speech... and the private part confirms that or denies it»; the transcript confined itself to indicating its beginning. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth «Whoever intends a good deed and does not do it, a good deed is written for him...» is agreed upon, from the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAbbās, may Allah be pleased with them both; the speaker did not complete its text in the khatira. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: The speaker stopped at “yaṣlā”, and the completion of the verse is ﴿سَعِيرًا﴾ [al-Inshiqāq: 12], which he did not pronounce. What comes after it in the same surah, the saying of the Exalted: ﴿إِنَّهُ كَانَ فِي أَهْلِهِ مَسْرُورًا﴾ [al-Inshiqāq: 13], suits his purpose, and the speaker did not mention it. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: The speaker stopped in the verse at “your spouses and your children”, and its completion is: ﴿عَدُوًّا لَّكُمْ فَاحْذَرُوهُمْ﴾ [al-Taghābun: 14]; he explained the meaning by saying that the issue lies in a person's view of his family, not in them. ^[8]: Editor's documentation: The speaker stopped at the word “ibtighāʾ”; the completion of the verse is: ﴿مَرْضَاتِ اللَّهِ فَسَوْفَ نُؤْتِيهِ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا﴾. ^[9]: Editor's documentation: In the transcript there is the phrase “we repeat it 17 day”, which is garbled, so the number was not retained. ^[10]: Editor's documentation: In the transcript it reads “fann dirāsat al-jadwal” (the art of studying the table); the likely reading is “al-jadwā” (feasibility).