Discussion on the sharing of intention in acts of worship, such as the greeting of the mosque.

The Shaykh : This matter extends to his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): , while keeping in mind that if a person tells someone who is speaking while the preacher is delivering the Friday sermon to be silent, that is enjoining good. Enjoining good is obligatory. If he dropped this obligation and commanded that other obligation, or let us say he commanded the two rak'ahs, that would be clear evidence that the two rak'ahs are obligatory; especially since he commanded that . Therefore, it is necessary for one who wants to combine the sunnah of wudu'—for example—with the greeting of the mosque to intend the greeting of the mosque primarily, then follow it with the sunnah of wudu'. Knowing that this second intention is recorded for him as only one good deed, whereas if he prayed two rak'ahs as the greeting of the mosque, two rak'ahs as the sunnah of wudu', and two rak'ahs as the sunnah of the time, this is on a day other than Friday, because on Friday there is no pre-prayer sunnah, then it would be better; because at least ten good deeds are recorded for every two rak'ahs, as is known from the fact that a good deed is recorded as ten, up to a hundred, up to seven hundred, up to many times more. However, intention does not accept multiplication. If we assume that a man prayed two rak'ahs as the greeting of the mosque, at least ten good deeds were recorded for him, and another man prayed the greeting of the mosque and intended with them the sunnah of wudu', eleven good deeds were recorded for him; because the ten are for the two rak'ahs practically, and the one is for the intention without action. So combining the intention here with the action, meaning he prayed two rak'ahs, two rak'ahs, is better for him. Yes, and the fruit of this detail.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : The fruit of this detail: we can imagine three people. One person prays the greeting of the mosque, and ten are recorded for him. A second person prays the greeting of the mosque and adds the sunnah of wudu', and eleven are recorded for him. A third person prays two rak'ahs as the greeting of the mosque and two rak'ahs as the sunnah of wudu', so this is ten plus ten.