Removing the Doubts: Can we judge someone’s intention?

بـسـم الله والحـمـد لله والـصلاة والـسـلام عــلى رسـول الله، وبـعـد

It is sometimes observed that when a person makes a mistake and another one comes up to correct him, a third person would be found saying: “Who are you to judge him? Only Allaah knows his intention” (or something similar).

Yes, we cannot judge someone based on his intention, as has been clarified in this Hadeeth:

Usaamah bin Zaid رضي الله عنه narrated that the Messenger of Allaah صلى الله عليه وسلم sent us in a raiding party. We raided al-Huraqah of Juhainah in the morning. I caught hold of a man and he said: “None has the right to be worshipped but Allaah”, I attacked him with a spear. It once occurred to me and I talked about it to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. The Messenger of Allaah صلى الله عليه وسلم said: “You killed him after he had said: 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allaah?” I said: Messenger of Allaah صلى الله عليه وسلم, he made a profession of it out of the fear of the weapon. He (the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم) replied: “Did you tear his heart in order to find out whether it had professed or not?” And he went on repeating it to me till I wished I had embraced Islaam that day. [Saheeh al-Bukhaaree (4269) and Saheeh Muslim (176) and the wordings are his.]

But from this Hadeeth we learn two points:

a. No one knows what the heart conceals except Allaah and this is clarified from the Prophet’s statement: “Did you tear his heart…”

b. And from the statement of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: “You killed him after he had said: 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allaah?”, we learn that we are supposed to make judgments based on the face value and on their outer actions.

This is further supported by the statement of `Umar رضي الله عنه:

Narrated `Umar bin Al-Khattaab رضي الله عنه: People were (sometimes) judged by the revealing of a Divine Inspiration during the lifetime of Allaah's Apostle صلى الله عليه وسلم but now there is no longer any more (new revelation). Now we judge you by the deeds you practice publicly, so we will trust and favor the one who does good deeds in front of us, and we will not call him to account about what he is really doing in secret, for Allaah will judge him for that; but we will not trust or believe the one who presents to us with an evil deed even if he claims that his intentions were good. [Saheeh al-Bukhaaree (2460)]

So, when someone makes a mistake, then it is futile to remain silent and just say: “We don’t know what his intention was.” We can make an excuse for him that he might have done it out of mistake or that he didn’t know it any better. But we cannot remain silent. Rather, we should correct the mistake – but in a way most honorable, so that the one who made the mistake accepts the correction. And similarly we warn against the mistake so that the people should not – unknowingly - accept it as the truth.

And were we to let the people do what they want based on the statement: “We do not know what his intention was/is?” Then, we will have to let go of all the prisoners and remove the judicial system. Because we do not know what the person was intending when he killed someone; and we do not know what the person was intending when he robbed someone.

We do not judge the intentions, we judge the actions!