What do the esteemed scholars say concerning someone who firmly resolves to commit a “forbidden act,” such as unlawful sexual intercourse, theft, or drinking wine, but is unable to carry it out because of death or some other cause? Does he incur sin merely for his resolve, or not?

If you say that he incurs sin, how do you answer someone who argues that no sin is incurred, citing the saying:

“When My servant intends an evil deed but does not carry it out, it is not recorded against him,”

and the saying:

“Allah has pardoned my community for their inner thoughts, so long as they neither act upon them nor speak of them”?

He bases his argument on the latter in two ways. First, it declares that inner thoughts are pardoned, and resolve falls within this general wording. Resolve and intention are one and the same, as Ibn Sīdah stated. Second, it makes this pardon extend until speech or action occurs; whatever precedes that falls within the scope of the pardon.

He further contends that the Prophet’s saying—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—

“When two Muslims confront one another with their swords, both the killer and the one killed are in the Fire,”

does not prove that resolve alone incurs sin, because what warrants the slain man’s entry into the Fire is his confronting his brother: this is an action, not merely an intention.

Nor, he argues, is there evidence for this in the Prophet’s statement—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—concerning the man who said, “If I had wealth, I would do such and such,” that “the two are equal in sin and equal in reward,” because that man had spoken,