make their willing dependent upon the Lord’s will in the future, for the particle an (“that”) gives the imperfect verb an exclusively future sense. Thus, the meaning is: “unless He wills thereafter,” whereas the command precedes that. This is like someone saying, “I will not do this unless Allah wills.”

The early generations and the jurists agreed that if someone swears, saying, “I will certainly pray tomorrow, if Allah wills,” or “I will certainly repay my debt tomorrow, if Allah wills,” and tomorrow passes without his repaying it, he has not broken his oath. If willing meant commanding, he would have broken his oath, because Allah has commanded him to do that. This is among the arguments advanced against the Qadariyyah, to which they have no answer. For this reason, some of them departed from the long-established consensus and said that he does break his oath.

Furthermore, His words,

“But you do not will unless Allah wills,”

are intended to praise and extol the Lord by making clear His power and His servants’ need for Him. If the intended meaning were, “You do not act unless He commands you,” then the same would apply to every command, and this would not be among the Lord’s distinctive attributes for which He is praised. If, instead, the meaning were that they act only in obedience to His command, this would be praise of them, not of Him.