1592 — Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Amr narrated to us: Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Hatim narrated to us; he said: My father narrated to us; he said: Abd al-Malik ibn Abd al-Hamid al-Maymuni narrated to us; he said: Abu Uthman Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Shafi‘i narrated to us. He said: I heard my father say to al-Humaydi one night: “There is no stronger proof against them”—meaning the Murji’ah—“than His saying: ‘Yet they were commanded only to worship Allah, devoting their religion sincerely to Him as upright believers, to establish the prayer, and to give zakah. That is the true religion.’” [al-Bayyinah: 5]

1593 — Al-Shafi‘i, may Allah have mercy on him, said in al-Umm, in the chapter on the intention in prayer: “We maintain that no prayer is valid without an intention, on account of Umar ibn ⦗957⦘ al-Khattab’s hadith from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: ‘Actions are only by intentions.’” He then said: “The consensus of the Companions and the Successors after them whom we encountered was that faith consists of statement, deed, and intention; none of the three suffices in place of the others.”