It is related from Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, regarding the Himariyyah case, that he ruled that the full siblings were excluded from inheritance. Then the case arose again, and he ruled that they should share in the inheritance. When he was questioned about this, he said, “That was according to what we ruled then, and this is according to what we rule now.” (1) He did not overturn the first judgment.

His statement, “Among them is the intention,” means that intention is among the conditions of prayer. This is the ninth and final condition.

Thus, the conditions of prayer are: Islam, sanity, discernment, the commencement of the prayer time, covering the private parts, purification from ritual impurity, avoiding physical impurity, facing the qiblah, and intention.

At the beginning of the chapter, he said, “Among them is the time,” (2) and the word “among” indicates that only some of the conditions were mentioned. This is indeed the case, for he omitted Islam, sanity, and discernment, because these three are conditions for every act of worship, except those acts for which an exception has been made.

Intention, in its linguistic sense, means purpose; in the Sacred Law, it means resolving to perform an act of worship in order to draw nearer to Allah Most High.