because his people fought them, and he fought merely in following his people, and so on.
The worship of such people is unquestionably invalid. Indeed, the texts of the Quran and Sunnah and the consensus of the Muslim community establish that these acts do not discharge the obligation. Let no one therefore suppose that those jurists who said, “The intention to dedicate the act to Allah is not obligatory,” meant people such as these. Rather, they considered the continuing effect of the intention sufficient in this regard, as we explained above. They thus distinguished between someone who does not seek Allah through his deeds, either generally or specifically, and someone who seeks Him generally but is heedless of specifically seeking Him through the particular deed.
No one in the Muslim community would say that the former is worshipping Allah or fulfilling what He has commanded in any way. This is clear.
Some scholars of our school required this intention when performing the particular act. They said: “The intention required in prayer is to intend to perform the particular prayer that Allah has enjoined upon one and to comply with His binding command, without showing off or seeking a reputation.” Some expressed it as “following His command and devoting the deed sincerely to Him.”
The statements of most of them indicate this, for they cite, as evidence that intention is required in purification, prayer, and similar acts, His words:
“They were commanded only to worship Allah, devoting their religion sincerely to Him.”
They said: “Devoting one’s religion sincerely to Allah is intention.” Whoever bathes to cool himself or to become clean has not devoted his worship sincerely to Allah. They also cite His words:
“Whoever desires the harvest of the Hereafter, We increase his harvest for him; and whoever desires the harvest of this world, We give him some of it, but he will have no share in the Hereafter.”
They said that whoever bathes to cool himself and to become clean has not sought the harvest of the Hereafter