in the observance of fasts. The niyyah really means intention, aim or purpose in the doing of a thing; but it is wrongly supposed that the niyyah consists in the repetition of certain words stating that one intends to do so and so. Bukhārī shows the true significance of niyyah when he gives as the heading to one of his chapters: “He who fasts during Ramadzān having faith (in God) (imān-an) and seeking His pleasure (iḥtisāb-an) and having an aim or purpose (niyyat-an)” (Bu. 30:6). And he adds a portion of a ḥadīth reported by ‘Ā’ishah in which it is stated that “people will be raised up (on the Judgment Day) according to their aims (‘alā niyyāti-him).” The very first ḥadīth with which Bukhārī opens his book is an example of what niyyah means: “(Good) actions shall be judged only by their aims16 — innama-l-a‘mālu bi-l-niyyāt.” Hence if a good action is done with a bad aim, it shall not benefit the doer. Exactly the same object is in view in the statement that there must be a niyyah in fasting, as Bukhārī says: that is, the man who fasts must have an aim or purpose before him. The aim or purpose of fasting has already been stated, being according to the Holy Qur’ān, the attainment of taqwā, to make the fast a spiritual discipline, to attain nearness to God and to seek His pleasure in all one’s actions, and to make it a moral discipline, to shun all evil. It is in this sense alone that the niyyah is of the essence of fasting, as it is in fact of the essence of all good actions.
“Formulating the niyyah,” or the expression of one’s intention in set words, is unknown to the Holy Qur’ān and the Ḥadīth, and is in fact meaningless, for a man will not fast unless he intends to do it. Only in the case of voluntary fasting, it is stated in a ḥadīth, that the Holy Prophet sent a crier to inform the people on the day of ‘Āshūra’, in daytime that people who had not eaten anything up to that time may fast. And of Abū Dardā’, it is related that he used to ask his wife if there was any food, and if none was found, he used to keep the fast (Bu. 30:21). According to ‘Ā’ishah, the Holy Prophet used to ask if there was any food in the house, and when none was found he would fast (Ad. 14:70). In the case of voluntary fasts one can understand the making up of mind in daytime, but there is no question of such intention in the month of Ramadzān, when everybody knows that he must fast.
16 I have translated the word a‘māl as meaning good actions. A reference to what follows in the report makes it clear, for the example of actions given there is hijra, the flight of a man for the sake of his principles which is an action of the highest value, but as the report tells us, if the hijra is undertaken with a bad aim in view, to attain worldly wealth or for the love of a woman, it loses all its value. That there can be no question of a good aim in evil actions is self-evident, and hence by a‘māl in this report are meant good actions.