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The place of intention is the heart, by scholarly agreement. If someone forms an intention in his heart without expressing it verbally, that intention suffices, by their agreement. Some followers of al-Shāfi‘ī inferred from his words a legal opinion that they mistakenly attributed to him. Al-Shāfi‘ī merely distinguished prayer from entering the state of consecration for pilgrimage by noting that prayer begins with spoken words. Some mistakenly thought that he meant verbally expressing the intention, whereas he meant the opening declaration of Allah’s greatness.

Intention follows knowledge: anyone who knows what he wishes to do necessarily intends it. This is like someone who places food before himself to eat: if he knows that he wishes to eat, he necessarily intends to do so. The same applies to riding and other actions. Indeed, if people were required to perform an action without any intention, they would be required to do something beyond their ability. Whenever anyone wishes to perform an action, whether prescribed by religious law or not, awareness of it is already present in his heart, and that is intention.

If a person knows that he wishes to purify himself, pray, or fast, that awareness necessarily entails the intention to do so. An absence of intention is conceivable only when he is unaware of what he wishes to do. Examples include someone who forgets that he is in a state of major ritual impurity and bathes to clean or cool himself; someone who wishes to teach another person how to perform ablution without intending to perform ablution himself; or someone who does not know that the following day is in Ramadan and reaches the morning without having intended to fast.