Quality of the Commanded Act: Intrinsic and Dependent Goodness

1. The Goal and the Way to Reach It

Imagine you want to read a lesson. Fetching its book helps you do that.
• Reading the lesson is the goal.
• Fetching the book is a means of reaching it.

This simple difference also helps us understand the relationship between prayer and Wudu. Prayer is an act of worship; Wudu prepares a person for it.

A commanded act, or Ma'mur bihi, is an act that one has been commanded to perform. We will now examine whether its goodness belongs to the act itself or comes through its relationship to another act.

• The Goal and the Way to Reach It

2. A Divine Command and Goodness

Allah is wise and free of every defect. An act that He commands has goodness, even when someone sees only its outward difficulty.

Likewise, an act that Allah forbids has badness, even if its outward appearance attracts a person. Obeying His command brings reward; doing what He forbids brings liability to punishment.

The starting point is Allah's established command, not our personal liking or dislike. Here, “goodness” explains the quality of the commanded act.

• A Divine Command and Goodness

3. Two Ways an Act Has Goodness

The commanded act has two main categories:

• Hasan li-aynihi: goodness belongs to the act itself. This is intrinsic goodness.
• Hasan li-ghayrihi: goodness comes through another act or purpose. This is dependent goodness.

These names identify where the goodness comes from. They do not mean “good versus bad” or “required versus optional.” Each main category has two further forms, which the examples will make clear.

• Two Ways an Act Has Goodness

4. Goodness That Belongs to the Act Itself

The first form of intrinsic goodness is in the act's own substance and components; it does not become separated from the act.

• Faith in the heart means inwardly affirming the truth. That inward affirmation remains good at all times. Even a threat to life does not permit abandoning it in one's heart.
• Prayer contains reverence for Allah throughout its acts, and revering Allah is good.

Prayer may nevertheless cease to be required in specific cases of a Shariah-recognized excuse1. This concerns the duty in that case, not a loss of prayer's goodness.

1. A duty falling away: a requirement no longer applies in the relevant Shariah-recognized case; personal inconvenience alone does not define that case.

• Goodness That Belongs to the Act Itself

5. An Intermediary Treated as Absent

There is also a form in which goodness reaches the act through an intermediary1. Yet this intermediary is treated as absent for the classification.

This form is called attached to intrinsic goodness (Mulhaq bi-Hasan li-aynihi). Zakat, fasting and Hajj are its examples.

Why is the intermediary treated this way? In these examples, the basis connecting the act to goodness is created or bestowed by Allah, rather than created by the person's voluntary act. The next examples show the difference.

1. Intermediary: something through which goodness is connected to the act. “Treated as absent” does not mean that it physically does not exist.

• An Intermediary Treated as Absent

6. Zakat: Wealth Spent to Meet a Need

Looking only at the money leaving a person's possession shows a reduction in wealth. But Zakat meets the needy person's need. It is therefore meaningful spending, not simply money being lost.

The connection is:
giving Zakat → meeting need → goodness and reward.

The needy person's need is the intermediary in this explanation. Its creation belongs to Allah, not to a voluntary act by the rich or poor person. That is why this intermediary is treated as absent and Zakat is attached to intrinsic goodness.

• Zakat: Wealth Spent to Meet a Need

7. Fasting: Understanding the Restraint

Hunger is an outward difficulty of fasting. Its goodness is not explained merely by saying that hunger is difficult.

Fasting restrains the lower self and its desires1. Desire is the intermediary: without it, this restraint would not be needed. The comparison with angels makes that point; they do not have these desires, so fasting has no such distinct merit for them.

Allah created human desire; the person did not create it by choosing an action. This intermediary is therefore treated as absent, and fasting is attached to intrinsic goodness.

1. Desires of the lower self: inclinations that need restraint; the term here is not limited to sexual desire.

• Fasting: Understanding the Restraint

8. Hajj: Hardship and an Honored Purpose

Hajj includes a long journey and exertion. Ihram, Tawaf and standing at Arafat may look difficult when considered only as outward acts.

These acts are connected to visiting Allah's honored House. The House's sanctity and honor are bestowed by Allah. This intermediary is therefore treated as absent, and Hajj is attached to intrinsic goodness.

The goodness of Zakat, fasting and Hajj does not mean that every requirement remains unchanged under every excuse. Their obligations may fall away in the specific cases recognized by Shariah. Goodness and the continued applicability of a duty are distinct questions.

• Hajj: Hardship and an Honored Purpose

9. Wudu: Goodness Through Prayer

In the first form of dependent goodness, the other act is distinct and comes afterward. Wudu and prayer show this relationship.

Wudu is not explained by visible dirt alone: water is used even when no dirt is on the limbs. Its devotional quality comes through prayer, for which it prepares the worshipper.

The demand for Wudu depends on the demand for prayer. This is an order of legal dependence, not an instruction to pray before doing Wudu. In performance, Wudu comes first; prayer follows.

• Wudu: Goodness Through Prayer

10. The Effect of That Dependence

When prayer is not required in a recognized case, the Wudu required for that prayer is not required either. The example is a woman during menstruation1: the prayer obligation and its Wudu obligation do not apply then.

There is also a distinction concerning reward. If a person performs Wudu but does not then pray, its goodness and reward are diminished in this explanation of the relationship.

“Diminished” is not the same as “no reward at all,” nor does it mean that the Wudu did not occur. The point is the connection between the preparation and its purpose.

1. Menstruation: the monthly bleeding period, used here as the stated example of prayer not being required.

• The Effect of That Dependence

11. Going to the Friday Prayer

فَاسْعَوْا إِلَىٰ ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ
Meaning: Go to the remembrance of Allah.

For those upon whom Jumuah is obligatory, going to perform it becomes required after the Friday Adhan. This going, or Sa'y1, is a means of reaching the prayer; its goodness and reward come from that connection.

If Jumuah is not obligatory on a person, this going is not obligatory either. If someone goes without intending the Friday prayer, the going described here does not carry its reward. It is therefore an example of dependent goodness.

1. Sa'y here: going toward the Friday prayer; the explanation is about proceeding to prayer, not a command to run.

• Going to the Friday Prayer

12. A Right Fulfilled Alongside the Act

In the second form of dependent goodness, the other purpose is fulfilled alongside the commanded act, rather than afterward.

Consider funeral prayer for a Muslim deceased. Looking only at the outward posture in front of a body could obscure its purpose. The prayer is not worship of that body: it fulfills the Muslim deceased's right.

That right is fulfilled with the funeral prayer itself, not by a later prayer as in the Wudu example. The deceased's Islam is the intermediary in this classification; it is treated here as a voluntary human act.

• A Right Fulfilled Alongside the Act

13. A Classical Example and Its Stated Purpose

The classical Usul discussion gives Jihad1 as another example of this second form of dependent goodness.

It contrasts the outward harm of fighting and damaged settlements with the stated purpose of elevating Allah's word and spreading Tawhid. The goodness in the example is connected to that purpose, not to causing harm for its own sake.

The discussion identifies disbelief as the intermediary: without it, that particular struggle to elevate the word would not have the stated purpose. Disbelief is classified here as a voluntary human act. This differs from the divinely created desire or need in the earlier examples.

1. Jihad in this example: a classical legal example used to explain an Usul category, not authorization for a person or group to wage war or use violence.

• A Classical Example and Its Stated Purpose

14. Why the Two Intermediaries Differ

Both sets of examples involve another factor. Simply noticing an intermediary is therefore not enough to classify the act.

• In Zakat, fasting and Hajj, the relevant need, desire or sanctity is created or bestowed by Allah. The person does not create that intermediary by a voluntary act. It is treated as absent, so these acts are attached to intrinsic goodness.
• In the funeral-prayer and classical Jihad examples, the intermediary is the Islam or disbelief identified in the discussion as a voluntary human act. That intermediary remains part of the classification, so the examples have dependent goodness.

The distinction is about the kind of intermediary, not simply which act seems harder or more important.

• Why the Two Intermediaries Differ