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Does Allah accept deeds without a detailed intention before each deed if a person's general intention is for everything in their life to be for Allah, based on His saying, the Most High: "Say, 'Indeed, my prayer, my rites of sacrifice, my living, and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds'"?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

One must have the intention (niyyah) present when performing any act from which reward is sought. Intention distinguishes acts of worship from habits, and it distinguishes acts of worship from one another; this is based on the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: "Indeed, actions are by intentions, and indeed, every person will have what he intended."

So, if a Muslim intends to perform prayer, he must have the intention for the specific prayer, whether it is for Dhuhr or Asr, or whether it is an obligatory prayer (fard) or a supererogatory prayer (nafilah), and so on for all his other actions. The noble verse: "Say, 'Indeed, my prayer, my rites of sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds'" is a directive from Allah Almighty to His servants that all their actions should be for Allah Almighty.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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