Malamai sun yarda game da sharadin niyya (niyya) domin ingancin sallah, saboda sallah ita ce babbar daga cikin nau'o'in ibada na al'ada da aka shar'anta a cikin shari'a ba tare da an danganta su da wata maslaha ta hankali ba, wato wata fa'ida da ake iya gani a zahiri. Sai dai sun sabawa juna kan ko yana daga cikin sharuɗɗa cewa niyyar wanda ke bin imami ta dace da niyyar imamin. A takaice, shin ana halatta wa mai bin imami ya yi sallar zuhur alhali imami yana yin sallar la'asar? Kuma shin ana halatta wa imami ya yi sallar zuhur ta nafila alhali wanda ke bayansa yana yin ta farilla? Malik da Abu Hanifa sun tabbatar da cewa wajibi ne niyyar mai bin imami ta dace da niyyar imamin, yayin da al-Shafi'i ya ce ba wajibi ba ne.

The jurists agreed about the stipulation of intention (niyya) for the validity of prayer, because prayer is the foremost form among the different kinds of ritual worship that have been ordained in the law without being assigned a rational interest {maslaha), that is, a tangible interest. They disagreed, however, about whether it is a condition that the niyya of the follower should conform with the niyya of the imami In other words, is it permitted for a follower to pray zuhr when the imam is praying W? And, is it permitted for the imam to be praying supererogatory zuhr when the follower prays fard? Malik and Abu HanTfa maintained that it is obligatory that the intention of the follower conform with the intention of the imam, while al-ShaficT held that it is not obligatory.