❀ Ten Shar‘i Guidelines Regarding Verbalizing the Intention in Acts of Worship ❀
From: Fatāwā al-Dīn al-Khāliṣ, Vol. 1, p. 350
❖ Question:
Is it recommended (mustaḥabb) to pronounce the niyyah (intention) verbally at the start of purification, prayer, or other acts of worship, especially since some later scholars deemed it praiseworthy?
✔ Answer:
Al-ḥamdu lillāh, and blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. To proceed:
◈ Verbalizing the Intention: A Blameworthy Innovation
- Pronouncing the intention aloud is a reprehensible innovation (bidʿah).
- None of the salaf al-ṣāliḥīn or earlier scholars regarded it as recommended.
- For something to be mustaḥabb, a clear sharʿī proof is necessary, which is absent in this matter.
- Several renowned scholars have explicitly declared verbal niyyah to be an innovation.
✿ Statements of Classical Scholars
➊ Ibn ʿĀbidīn (رحمه الله) – Radd al-Muḥtār (1/279):
“No authentic or weak narration is proven from the Prophet ﷺ that he ever said: ‘I intend to pray such-and-such…’ at the beginning of prayer.
Nothing of the sort is reported from the Companions, Tābiʿīn, or the Four Imams.
What is proven is that he would stand and say only: ‘Allāhu Akbar.’”
➋ Mirqāt al-Mafātīḥ (1/41):
“Verbalizing the niyyah is not permissible. It is a bidʿah.
Following the Prophet ﷺ entails acting or refraining as he did.
Whoever continually performs an act that the Prophet ﷺ did not, is an innovator.”
➌ Imām Ibn al-Qayyim (رحمه الله) – Zād al-Maʿād (1/69):
“The Prophet ﷺ, when standing for prayer, would say nothing but ‘Allāhu Akbar.’
He never verbalized the niyyah.
This is among ten innovations not supported by any narration—authentic, weak, or mursal—from the Prophet ﷺ, his Companions, the Tābiʿīn, or the Four Imams.”
➡ Some were misled by a statement of Imām al-Shāfiʿī. But his reference to “dhikr” was to the opening takbīr, not verbalizing the intention.
➍ Ibn al-Qayyim – Ighāthat al-Lahfān (1/136):
“Niyyah resides in the heart.
It has nothing to do with the tongue.
Neither the Prophet ﷺ, nor any of his Companions verbalized it.
Such utterances are a trap of Shayṭān for those afflicted with obsessive doubts.
One’s state is itself a clear indicator—e.g., someone sitting in the masjid at the time of prayer clearly intends to pray.”
➎ Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (رحمه الله):
“Some people commit ten innovations, including verbalizing the niyyah, moving body parts unnaturally, or pronouncing takbīr like one confronting an enemy…
Even if a person lived as long as Nūḥ (عليه السلام), he would never find the Prophet ﷺ or his Companions performing these acts.
If there were good in it, they would have preceded us.”
➏ Ibn Taymiyyah – Al-Fatāwā (18/262):
“The place of niyyah is the heart.
Even if a person does not verbalize it, the intention is still valid—by consensus of all scholars.
Some later Shāfiʿī scholars attempted justifications, but they are mistaken.”
➐ Al-Fatāwā (22/238–263):
“Niyyah is the intention and resolve, and it is an act of the heart, not the tongue.
All four Imams agree that heart-based intention is sufficient.
There is no valid scholarly disagreement on this.
Those who support verbalization among some later scholars have opposed consensus.”
➑ Al-Sunan wa al-Mubtadaʿāt (1/28, 1/31):
“Verbalizing the intention during wudu, ghusl, or prayer is not mustaḥabb—it is a bidʿah.
Niyyah is obligatory, but its place is the heart.
Verbalizing it is not legislated, rather, it is an innovation.”
➒ ʿUmdat al-Riʿāyah with Ḥāshiyah Sharḥ al-Wiqāyah (1/159):
Niyyah has three scenarios:
- ◈ Heart-based niyyah: Valid by agreement, and is the Sunnah and the way of the Companions.
- ◈ Verbal niyyah alone: Invalid by agreement.
- ◈ Heart and tongue together: Neither Sunnah nor recommended.
➓ Ibn al-Humām – Fatḥ al-Qadīr (1/332), Ibn al-Qayyim – Zād al-Maʿād
These and other authoritative works have extensively refuted the practice of verbalizing intention.
✔ Summary of the Issue
- The place of intention is solely the heart.
- Pronouncing it aloud is an innovation (bidʿah)—it is neither from the Sunnah nor from the practices of the Companions, Tābiʿīn, or Four Imams.
- Not a single valid narration from the Prophet ﷺ or his Companions supports this practice.
- Early scholars have unanimously condemned it as a reprehensible innovation.
هٰذَا مَا عِندِي، وَاللّٰهُ أَعْلَمُ بِالصَّوَابِ
This is what I hold to be correct, and Allah knows best.
