A man left his town intending to perform Hajj on behalf of his mother, and he performed 'Umrah and declared his intention for his mother. However, when it came to Hajj, he declared his intention for his father instead of his mother. What is the ruling?

The questioner : A man left his town intending to perform Hajj on behalf of his mother, and he performed 'Umrah and declared his intention for his mother. However, when it came to Hajj, he declared his intention for his father instead of his mother. What is the ruling?

The Shaykh : If his second declaration of intention was for his father, and it was a slip of the tongue while his intention did not change, then his Hajj is valid. This is similar to what is said regarding many of those who are afflicted by verbalizing the intention. Here, those who went to the permissibility of verbalizing the intention expanded on this issue to some extent, in an attempt to address some of the errors that occur among some of the worshippers who verbalize their intention. They said: If a worshipper enters the mosque to pray the Zuhr prayer and says with his tongue, "I intend to pray the 'Asr prayer," while he intends to pray the Zuhr prayer, is his prayer valid or invalid? They said, and this is correct: The criterion is his intention, not his wording. If his intention was to pray Zuhr, and it was actually the time of Zuhr, then his prayer is valid, and his verbal error does not harm him, which is his saying, "I intend to pray the 'Asr prayer." And conversely, if he was distracted in mind and thought, and when he entered to pray the Zuhr prayer he said, "I intend to pray the Zuhr prayer," his wording is correct, but in his intention it was 'Asr due to his distraction, then his prayer is invalid, because the criterion is what is in the heart, not what is in the wording. So here, we say regarding this man's declaration of intention for his father afterwards: if this was a slip of the tongue, it has no value. And if he changed his intention, then he has not performed Hajj for his mother nor for his father, and he must repeat the Hajj in the coming year on behalf of his mother.