the one who told us that we would enter the House and circle it?’
‘Yes,’ he answered, ‘but did I ever specify that it would be this year? You will certainly reach it and walk around it.’

The point, then, is that the phrase ‘if Allah wills’ here is not an expression of doubt, as though one were unsure whether a thing would happen or not. Rather, it means that our catching up with you is not by our own choice; it is by the will of Allah.

The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—then said, ‘I would love to meet our brothers.’ He longed to meet his brothers—may Allah make me and you among them.

They asked, ‘Messenger of Allah, are we not your brothers?’
He replied, ‘You are my Companions.’ A companion is more specific than a brother: a companion is a brother plus the bond of companionship, whereas a brother may exist without that closeness. ‘You are my Companions,’ he repeated, meaning that you enjoy a distinction beyond them; the Companions are both brothers to the Messenger of Allah and his companions, while the believers who come after them are his brothers but not his companions.

He said again, ‘I would love to meet our brothers.’ They asked, ‘Are we not your brothers, Messenger of Allah?’ He said, ‘You are my Companions, but my brothers are people who will come after me. They will believe in me even though they have never seen me. O Allah, to You belongs all praise! O Allah, keep us firm upon that.’ They will believe in the Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him—that he is truly the Messenger of Allah, even though they have not seen him, yet they are like those who did see him.

They said, ‘Messenger of Allah, how will you recognise them when you have never met them?’ He gave the example of a man who owns horses with white blazes (ghurr)—that is, whiteness upon their foreheads