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