The Ruling on Breaking the Intention in Acts of Worship and Changing It
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The questioner:
This questioner asks, may Allah preserve you: What is the ruling on breaking the intention in acts of worship? For example, if a person praying changes his intention from an obligatory prayer to a voluntary one, or from a voluntary one to an obligatory one. Likewise, if a traveler intends to break his fast while fasting, then changes his intention to complete it, and so on.
The Shaykh:
If changing the intention is for a need, there is no harm. However, one should not change the intention from something to something higher in worship. One changes the intention in worship to something lower than it. An obligatory prayer is intended as a voluntary one, converting it to a voluntary prayer. As for converting a voluntary prayer to an obligatory one, this is not valid. Both are invalidated: the voluntary prayer is invalidated because he broke his intention, and the obligatory prayer is invalidated because he did not have the intention from the beginning. Yes.
The questioner:
Regarding the fasting person who intended.
The Shaykh:
If a fasting person needs to break his fast, he breaks it. If his fast was obligatory and he intended to break it, it is broken due to the loss of intention. If it was voluntary and he did not eat or drink, but intended to break his fast, then he did not eat or drink, and then he decided to continue fasting, there is no harm, because the voluntary fast is broader than the obligatory one. Yes.
This questioner asks, may Allah preserve you: What is the ruling on breaking the intention in acts of worship? For example, if a person praying changes his intention from an obligatory prayer to a voluntary one, or from a voluntary one to an obligatory one. Likewise, if a traveler intends to break his fast while fasting, then changes his intention to complete it, and so on.
The Shaykh:
If changing the intention is for a need, there is no harm. However, one should not change the intention from something to something higher in worship. One changes the intention in worship to something lower than it. An obligatory prayer is intended as a voluntary one, converting it to a voluntary prayer. As for converting a voluntary prayer to an obligatory one, this is not valid. Both are invalidated: the voluntary prayer is invalidated because he broke his intention, and the obligatory prayer is invalidated because he did not have the intention from the beginning. Yes.
The questioner:
Regarding the fasting person who intended.
The Shaykh:
If a fasting person needs to break his fast, he breaks it. If his fast was obligatory and he intended to break it, it is broken due to the loss of intention. If it was voluntary and he did not eat or drink, but intended to break his fast, then he did not eat or drink, and then he decided to continue fasting, there is no harm, because the voluntary fast is broader than the obligatory one. Yes.
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 02/235 — archive.org (5:38)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.