He was asked about the saying of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“When a servant intends to do a good deed but does not do it, it is recorded for him as one good deed”—and the rest of the hadith.

If this intention is a secret between the servant and his Lord, how do the angels become aware of it?

He replied:

All praise is due to Allah. It is reported that Sufyān ibn ‘Uyaynah answered this question by saying:

“When he intends to do a good deed, the angel smells a pleasant fragrance; and when he intends to do an evil deed, the angel smells a foul odour.”

The truth of the matter is that Allah is able to inform the angels of what is within the servant’s soul in whatever way He wills, just as He is able to enable some human beings to perceive what is within another person. If Allah may grant some people insight through which they sometimes know what is in a person’s heart, then the angel assigned to the servant is all the more deserving of being informed of this by Allah.

Regarding His words, Exalted is He:

“We are closer to him than his jugular vein,”

it has been said that what is meant is the angels. Allah has caused the angels to place thoughts within the servant’s soul, as ‘Abdullāh ibn Mas‘ūd said: “There is a prompting from the angel and a prompting from Satan. The angel’s prompting is an affirmation of the truth and a promise