One of them was asked, “How did you come to know your Lord?”

He replied, “Through the undoing of resolutions and the frustration of aspirations.” Allah Most High has said:

“Never say of anything, ‘I will do that tomorrow,’ without adding, ‘If Allah wills.’”

When someone says, “I shall certainly do it,” his words express both an intention and an assertion. His intention is firm, but whether what he seeks actually happens depends upon Allah’s will. In seeking to perform the deed, he must turn to Allah, relying on His might and power. In expressing what he seeks, he must ask Allah; in making an assertion, he must state only what Allah has made known to him. If he asserts it categorically without making it conditional upon Allah’s will, this resembles swearing presumptuously concerning Allah, and Allah will prove him wrong.

Thus, when a Muslim is firmly resolved upon something, desires it, and seeks it without hesitation, he says, “If Allah wills,” to secure what he seeks and bring about what he has sworn to do, since it can happen only by Allah’s will—not because he is uncertain of his own intention. The Lord Most High, however, firmly wills to fulfil what He has promised them, without reservation, and He does whatever He wills. For whatever He—glory be to Him—wills comes to pass, and whatever He does not will does not come to pass. He is not like the servant, who desires things that do not happen, while things he does not desire happen.

Thus His words—glory be to Him—“If Allah wills” affirm: “What I have promised you will assuredly come to pass through My will and volition, for whatever I will comes to pass, and whatever I do not will does not come to pass.” Here, then, the qualification was intended to affirm fulfilment, because they had not obtained that year what they sought and had been promised. This was not the case with the other things they had been promised.

For this reason, the jurists disagreed about someone who, by qualifying his oath with Allah’s will, intends this meaning—affirming its fulfilment rather than making it conditional: does this count as a valid qualification of his oath, or must he offer expiation if he breaks it? This differs from someone whose intention is uncertain: his qualification is valid without dispute. The correct view is that he