and, according to the majority view, this does not avail him.
Likewise, when someone says, “Divorce shall be binding upon me: I will certainly do such-and-such, if Allah wills,” the reference to Allah’s will, unless otherwise qualified, relates to the act. The meaning is: “I will certainly do it if Allah wills that I do it.” Whenever he does not do it, Allah has not willed it, and so divorce is not binding upon him. This differs from his intending, by “Divorce shall be binding upon me, if Allah wills,” that divorce should bind him if Allah wills it to bind him. This is equivalent to saying, “You are divorced, if Allah wills.”
Ahmad’s statement, “The qualification ‘if Allah wills’ applies only where expiation is applicable, whereas divorce and manumission cannot be expiated,” is sound and eloquent. As explained above, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, set out the ruling on this qualification and the ruling on expiation in one and the same conditional formulation. No distinction should therefore be drawn between what the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, joined together. Rather, the qualification concerns only that upon which the act has been made conditional. Legal effects such as divorce, manumission, and the like are not made conditional upon the will of Allah Most High once their legal causes exist, for they necessarily follow from their causes. Once those causes have been established, Allah has already willed their effects. Only events that Allah may or may not will—such as people’s actions and similar occurrences—are made conditional upon His will. Expiation was prescribed only for breaking an oath that may sometimes be fulfilled through compliance and at other times broken through noncompliance.
The obligation to offer expiation upon breaking an oath that may be fulfilled or broken corresponds to the removal of an oath’s binding force by making it conditional upon Allah’s will: an oath may or may not be made conditional in this way.
Thus, anyone who swears that he will do something and then does not do it has not broken his oath if he made it conditional upon Allah’s will. If he did not make it conditional upon Allah’s will, expiation becomes binding upon him. Accordingly, qualification by Allah’s will and expiation apply as alternatives to an oath when it is not fulfilled.