The practice of “qualifying one’s profession of faith with ‘if Allah wills’” is also reported from Ibn Masʿūd and other early Muslims and leading scholars. This was not because they doubted anything they were obliged to believe, for doubt concerning that is disbelief. Rather, they used this qualification out of fear that they had not fulfilled faith’s obligations and truly realized it. Allah Most High has said:

“And those who give what they give while their hearts are fearful.”

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “This is the man who fasts, prays, and gives charity, yet fears that it will not be accepted from him.”

They also used this qualification because they did not know their ultimate fate, and the faith that benefits a person is the faith upon which he dies. They used it out of fear of declaring themselves pure, and for other similarly sound reasons.

The same applies to someone who qualifies statements about righteous deeds, saying, for example, “I prayed, if Allah wills.” All such qualifications concern actions that are not known to have been performed as commanded and accepted. Thus, the qualification concerns either something whose true reality is unknown, or a future matter made conditional upon Allah’s will, to make clear that all matters depend upon His will. As for qualifying a known past event in this way, this is an innovation contrary to reason and religion.