“Allah has recorded good deeds and bad deeds, then explained this: Whoever intends a good deed but does not perform it, Allah records it with Him as one complete good deed. If he intends it and performs it, Allah records it with Him as ten good deeds. Whoever intends a bad deed but does not perform it, Allah records it for him as one complete good deed. If he intends it and performs it, Allah records it for him with Him as one bad deed.”

A similar report is narrated from Abū Hurayrah in the two Sahīh collections. This distinction concerns someone who is able to act. Hence the expressions “then performs it” and “does not perform it.” Someone who is able to act but does not do so has not formed a firm will to act. For a firm will, coupled with the ability, necessarily entails action. As explained earlier, this combination is sufficient to bring about the act and necessarily produces it. If the act depended on anything further, a firm will coupled with ability would not constitute a complete and sufficient basis for its occurrence. Yet direct experience plainly shows otherwise.

Undoubtedly, “intending,” “resolving,” “willing,” and similar terms may denote a determination so firm that action fails to follow only because of inability; or they may fall short of this degree of firmness. It is in this “second category” that a distinction is made between someone who intends an act and someone who performs it. Indeed, a distinction is made between one intention and another, for willing is an act of the heart, which is the king of the body.

As Abū Hurayrah said: “The heart is a king, and the limbs are its soldiers. When the king is good, its soldiers are good; when the king is corrupt, its soldiers are corrupt.”

This is borne out by the hadith in the two Sahīh collections narrated by al-Nu‘mān ibn Bashīr from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace):