Masʿūd said, “Then are you one of the people of Paradise?” The man replied, “I hope so.” Ibn Masʿūd said, “Why did you not entrust the former to Allah, just as you entrusted the latter?”

A man asked ʿAlqama, “Are you a believer?” He replied, “I hope so, if Allah wills.”

Muhammad ibn al-Husayn (may Allah Most High have mercy on him) said: This is the position of many scholars, and it is the position of Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Ahmad cited what we have mentioned as evidence. He also cited the two angels’ questioning of the believer in the grave and the words with which they respond to him. They say to him, “You lived in certainty, died upon it, and shall be resurrected upon it on the Day of Resurrection, if Allah Most High wills.” The disbeliever and the hypocrite are told, “You lived in doubt, died upon it, and shall be resurrected upon it, if Allah wills.”