may take several shapes:

• On one occasion he abandons the sin out of fear of Allah; for that a good deed is recorded in his favour, in keeping with the divine ḥadīth: “He only left it for My sake.”

• On another he leaves it because he fears people or wishes to impress them; it has been said that he is punished for such an abstention, for preferring fear of the creation over fear of the Creator is forbidden.

• Should he exert every effort to obtain the sin but prove unable to carry it out, he is punished, as indicated by the Prophet’s words ﷺ: “When two Muslims meet each other with their swords …” etc. (al-Bukhārī 3; Muslim 2888).

If, however, the intention to sin itself dissolves and his resolve cools without any outward cause, is he punished for the mere intention or not? This falls into two cases:

1. The intention is nothing more than a passing notion that does not linger or take root in his heart; this is pardoned.

2. The soul welcomes it, the thought endures, and he lives with it. This is of two kinds:
   i. Sins that are actions of the heart—doubting Allah’s oneness, prophethood, resurrection, and other forms of disbelief and hypocrisy. For these a servant is punished and thereby becomes a disbeliever or a hypocrite. All other heart-based sins fall under this ruling.
   ii. Sins that do not originate in the heart but in the limbs—adultery, theft, murder, and the like. The prevailing view among the scholars is that he is held accountable for them; this is the position of the majority of jurists and hadith scholars among our own school and others. They quote the verse: “And know that Allah knows what is within yourselves, so beware of Him” (al-Baqarah 2:235), and interpret the Prophet’s saying ﷺ, “Allah has pardoned my ummah for what it thinks to itself so long as it does not speak of it or act upon it” (al-Bukhārī 5269; Muslim 127), as referring to fleeting thoughts. Whatever a servant firmly resolves upon in his heart is considered his acquisition and deed, and is therefore not excused.