I said: If it is indeed he, then he is reliable.

There is another supporting narration from Ibn ʿAbbās who related:

“A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and spoke with him about some matter. He said, ‘Whatever Allah wills and you will.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, ‘Have you made me an equal with Allah? (In another wording: a rival?) No—rather, whatever Allah alone wills.’”

139 – “Have you made me an equal with Allah? (In another wording: a rival?) No—rather, whatever Allah alone wills.”

(From Ibn ʿAbbās)

Al-Bukhārī recorded it in al-Adab al-Mufrad (787); Ibn Mājah (2117); al-Ṭaḥāwī in Mushkil al-Āthār (1/90); al-Bayhaqī (3/217); Aḥmad (1/214, 224, 283, 347); al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr (3/186/1); Abū Nuʿaym in Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ (4/99); al-Khaṭīb in Tārīkh Baghdād (8/105); and Ibn ʿAsākir (12/7/2) through the route of al-Ajlaḥ from Yazīd ibn al-Aṣamm, from Ibn ʿAbbās. Ibn ʿAsākir, however, mentioned al-Aʿmash in place of al-Ajlaḥ.

I say: This al-Ajlaḥ is Ibn ʿAbd Allāh Abū Ḥujayhah al-Kindī; he is truthful and inclined toward Shīʿism, as stated in al-Taqrīb. The remaining narrators are reliable—men relied upon by the two Shaykhs—so the chain is good.

Fiqh of the ḥadīth:

I say: These aḥādīth show that a person’s statement to someone else, “Whatever Allah and you will,” is regarded by the Lawgiver as a form of verbal associationism, because it suggests that the servant’s will is on the same level as the Lord’s will. The fault lies in coupling the two wills together. Similar to this is the saying of some common folk—and some who fancy themselves learned—“I have no one but Allah and you,” or “We place our trust in Allah and in you.” Equally objectionable is the expression some speakers use: “In the name of Allah and the homeland,” or “In the name of Allah and the people,” and other such associationist phrases. One must abandon them and repent of them, out of proper courtesy toward Allah, the Majestic.