Confirming that the Reward is achieved for a person who intends to do an act of worship but is unable to perform it

The minor pilgrimage, ‘umrah, intended at Hudaibiyah by the Prophet ﷺ was regarded as one of his ‘umrahs, even when he never completed it. This was because abandoning and not completing it by the Prophet was beyond his control. Thus, whenever a person intends to perform a righteous action, was keen to do it, and took up the means to do so, then he was prevented from doing it, he would achieve the full reward, by Allaah’s Permission. However, he should not be glad for the fact that he was prevented from doing so, because he came, wishing to perform the action, and being prevented from it should make him sad. As for a person who is glad to be prevented from it, he will not receive the reward for doing it, and one suspects that he was only doing it so that it would be said about him that he did it. If the motive for it was to get the Reward of seeing Allaah ’s Face in the Hereafter, the person would not be happy when prevented. This issue is needed to be considered in many actions. If a person intends to go to pray in the mosque, and finds it closed for repair or other reason, and there is not another mosque nearby, and he looked for a congregation prayer without success, and he prays alone, he would achieve a full reward. It is reported in the Sunan of Abu Daawood that a person who intends to pray in congregation and finds the congregation to have prayed, he would achieve a reward like theirs for that action f theirs. (Abu Daawood 564). This does mean that a person negligent of time knows the prayer will be over when he gets there, then goes to the mosque after the people had left, expects he will achieve the reward. It is not so. The issue refers back to intentions,

“… and every person will get what he intended.” (Bukhaary 1)