Thus, when a person stands to pray, knowing that it is the noon prayer, it is impossible for him to perform that prayer while knowing this, without having forgotten it, yet not intend to perform it. The same applies to fasting: if he recognizes that tomorrow is a day of Ramadan and wishes to fast Ramadan, it is impossible for him not to intend to fast that day. Likewise, if he announces his entry into Hajj, knowing that this is what he is doing, it is impossible for him not to intend Hajj. Similarly, if he knows that he is performing ablution for prayer and is actually doing so, it is impossible for him not to intend ablution.

There are many such examples. We find a great many scholars, let alone ordinary people, trying to summon intention through words they utter. They labor over verbal formulas and repeatedly doubt whether the intention is present, descending into a kind of obsessive doubt whose sufferers resemble the insane.

Yet intention is simply the will to act—one’s purpose. It is present within them, for it is present within everyone who prays in that mosque or congregational mosque, and everyone who performs ablution at that ablution facility. The former recognize this within themselves and have not developed obsessive doubts, whereas the latter suppose that intention is absent from their hearts and seek to bring it about within them.