All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
A bad deed that a person, be he a disbeliever or a believer, did not commit will not be recorded against him, and the people on the Day of Judgment, whether believers or disbelievers, will not be recompensed except for what they have actually done. Allaah Says (what means): {And you will see every nation kneeling [from fear]. Every nation will be called to its record [and told], “Today you will be recompensed for what you used to do.}[Quran 45:28]
Allaah informed us about the disbelievers that they will only be recompensed for what they used to do; Allaah Says (what means): {O you who have disbelieved, make no excuses that Day. You will only be recompensed for what you used to do.}[Quran 66:7]
Allaah also Says (what means): {And whoever comes with an evil deed - their faces will be overturned into the Fire, [and it will be said], ‘Are you recompensed except for what you used to do?”}[Quran 27:90]
In another verse, Allaah Says (what means): {So today [i.e. the day of Judgment] no soul will be wronged at all, and you will not be recompensed except for what you used to do.}[Quran 36:54]
Allaah further Says (what means): {Indeed, you [disbelievers] will be tasters of the painful punishment. And you will not be recompensed except for what you used to do.}[Quran 37:38-39]
Besides, Allaah Says (what means): {[Enter to] burn therein; then be patient or impatient — it is all the same for you. You are only being recompensed [for] what you used to do.”}[Quran 52:16]
Among the actions that will be recorded against both the disbeliever and the believer is that he had a strong determination to do an act of disobedience and resolved to do it, because resolving to do an act of disobedience and being determined to do it is in itself from the actions of the heart. So, if a person intended to do an act of disobedience and became determined to do it, but he did not do it with his limbs, then it will be recorded against him a bad deed for intending it and being determined to do it.
An-Nawawi said in his commentary on the Hadeeth “… Do not record it against him until he actually commits it.”; this determination will be written as a bad deed, and it is not the bad deed of doing it because he has not done it yet … but the very persisting on the bad deed and being determined to do it is a bad deed and it will be written as a bad deed, and if he does it, it will be recorded against him as a second bad deed. As regards the determination that is not written (as a bad deed), then it is related to the thoughts and whispers that come to the mind of the person who does not set himself on them, and they are not accompanied with resolution, nor intention nor determination.” [Abridged]
Allaah Knows best.