Explanation of al-Nawawi's statement in *Riyad al-Salihin*

The Shaykh : Now he begins the book and says: "In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. The chapter on sincerity and having the intention present in all actions, words, and states, whether apparent or hidden." Then he mentions verses and some hadiths regarding this, but there is no harm in pointing to what he indicated by his statement: "Sincerity and having the intention present in all actions and words." He did not limit sincerity and having the intention present to acts of obedience and worship only, but he made the chapter broader than that, saying: "all actions." He is pointing to what is known to many students of knowledge, namely that the ordinary permissible matter, whose ruling in Islam is that its doer is not rewarded for it and its leaver is not punished for it, is a permissible matter; one may do it if he wishes or leave it if he wishes. This is the permissible in Islam by consensus. However, if a person intends a good intention in some of these actions, this permissible action turns into a recommended matter for which its doer is rewarded because he intended good. This is taken from an authentic hadith narrated by Imam Muslim in his *Sahih*, which is the one in which the poor came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and complained to him of their poverty and mentioned to him their envy and admiration for the wealthy prophets who pray as the poor pray, perform Hajj as the poor perform Hajj, and do the good deeds that the poor do, yet they excel over them in that they give charity while the poor do not give charity because they cannot afford to. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) directed them to many deeds of good, noble traits, and good morals, encouraging them to increase in doing them so that they would compete with the wealthy in the abundance of their rewards. He said to them: , then he mentioned other traits, among which he said: ; meaning: in the intercourse of one of you with his wife is charity. The poor were amazed by this last point, that a Muslim would have intercourse with his wife and that he would have charity for that. He (peace and blessings be upon him) wanted to clarify and explain to them this matter that they found strange in a scientific manner. This manner is obligatory for the people of knowledge to adhere to and to train their students in it, and their answer should not always be "forbidden," "lawful," "permissible," "recommended," and so on, but rather through the method of question and answer. He said to them (peace and blessings be upon him): . They said: Yes. They said: .
So when a Muslim marries, when he contracts the marriage with his wife, he should intend at that moment not merely to satisfy his desire, but rather to protect himself from disobeying his Lord and to intend by that to obey his Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) and to follow his Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when he commanded marriage in many verses and hadiths. This is so that his intercourse with his wife becomes a continuous charity throughout the line. The meaning of this is that there is an indirect share for the wife in fulfilling the right of the wife from this sexual aspect, because at the time when he satisfies his desire and his wife's desire, he has a reward for that, and consequently the wife also has a reward. But in my opinion, many wives are unaware of this point which Imam al-Nawawi indicated, which is sincerity and having the intention present in every what? In actions, whether they are originally prescribed or permissible, where doing and leaving are equal. So every Muslim, male or female, should have this intention present so that continuous rewards are recorded for him whenever he performs a permissible action in its original state.