Arba'un 1 — Actions are but by intentions

الأربعون 1 — إنما الأعمال بالنيات

Umar ibn al-Khattab's hadith on intention, the first hadith of al-Nawawi's Forty and of Ibn Rajab's commentary; transmitted by al-Bukhari (1, 54, 2529, 3898, 5070, 6689, 6953) and Muslim (1907) through Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Ansari from Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Taymi from Alqama ibn Waqqas al-Laythi from Umar — the only sound chain according to the hadith scholars as al-Khattabi reports — with over two hundred narrators from Yahya ibn Sa'id; al-Bukhari opened his Sahih with it, and Ibn Rajab comments on intention, sincerity and the rulings of emigration (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 29–69).

Depth

At a glance

Review: Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it

إنما الأعمال بالنيات، وإنما لكل امرئ ما نوى، فمن كانت هجرته إلى الله ورسوله فهجرته إلى الله ورسوله، ومن كانت هجرته لدنيا يصيبها أو امرأة ينكحها فهجرته إلى ما هاجر إليه

Text: Tanzil Project,tanzil.net · verbatim and unchanged

Connections

Explore the connections

Basis for: Niyya (intention in deeds)
Mentions: Umar ibn al-Khattab

People and things also explored

Charity (sadaqa)The conversion of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb Abu Sufyan's mission to Medina The Badr war council The affair of the Badr prisoners The Qulayb at Badr The Battle of Badr The Battle of Uhud

Sources

Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam — Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali

Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Arba'un 1 — Actions are but by intentions”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/passage/arbaun-01/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-12.

Improve this page on GitHub · Report an error · JSON

Charity (sadaqa)

Charity in the usage of the Forty hadiths 25 and 26 is wider than alms of money: the poor Companions supposed there was no charity without wealth, until the Prophet directed them to charities within their power — glorification, magnification, praise, the declaration of unity, commanding right and forbidding wrong, removing harm from the road, aiding the weak, guiding the blind, making the deaf and mute understand, pointing out needs, running to the distressed, and 'in the intercourse of one of you is alms' — all of it a charity from a man upon himself; Hudhayfa's hadith in Muslim runs 'every act of kindness is charity' and Abu Masud's in the two Sahihs 'a man's spending on his family is charity'; in Abu Hurayra's hadith a charity is due on every sulama — joint or small hollow bone, three hundred and sixty joints in one version — each day the sun rises, and two mid-morning rak'as suffice for all of them in the Abu Dharr and Burayda routes; for Ibn Rajab the apparent sense is that a permissible act such as intercourse earns reward by an intention like seeking a righteous child or self-restraint, and al-Nawawi draws from it that permissible things become acts of obedience through sincere intentions.