Sam Shamoun "Allah – The All Guessing and Hopeful One" (1)

Sam Shamoun "Allah – The All Guessing and Hopeful One" (1)

The Quran states that reliance on Allah must be an established mindframe, in all endeavors 

18:23"And do not say of anything: Surely I will do it tomorrow, Unless Allah pleases". 

The phrase "In sha Allah" means that the action is predicated upon Allah's will. When an action is predicated upon Allah's will, it could either mean that Allah may or may not allow its fulfillement, or that the fulfillement of a certain action is willed by Allah but the WHEN is only known to Him 

48:27"Certainly Allah had shown to His Messenger the vision with truth: you shall most certainly enter the Sacred Mosque, if Allah pleases, in security.." 

The expression therefore does not denote uncertainty on Allah's part. It is not connected to the divine knowledge, but to the divine will. 

Similarly, the statements from God where conditional statements about the future are made, do not entail uncertainty on His part. Rather the implication is that the outcome is conditional to the actions of the subjects, although God already knows both the action and the outcome. For example, after issuing the challenge of creating the like of the Quran, Allah says 

2:24"And if you do not, and you will not, then be mindful of the Fire whose fuel is men and stones, which is prepared for the disbelievers". 

Elsewhere, the Quran states 

7:168"And We cut them up into nations in the earth, some of them righteous, and some of them otherwise; and We tried them with good things and evil, that perhaps (laallahum) they should return". 

Here again, the ending conditional statement isnt connected to Allah's knowledge, rather to the freewill of the people. Either they respond positively and return to righteousness, or ignore the signs and remain sinful. A similar Arabic word is AASA, also rendered "perhaps" as in 

17:8"Perhaps/AASA your Lord will have mercy on you". 

The verse is not expressing God's uncertainty, rather the fact that Allah's mercy applies depending on the person's choice, as seen with the rest of the verse 

"But if you reverted, We will revert. And We made hell a jail for the ones who are ungrateful". 

Had the verse not used AASA in relation to Allah's mercy, it would mean that the future is fixed and the people will receive it regardless of their spiritual condition. Again 

4:84"So fight in the cause of Allah O Prophet. You are accountable for none but yourself. And motivate the believers to fight, so perhaps/AASA Allah will curb the disbelievers’ might. And Allah is far superior in might and in punishment". 

Allah will not defeat the disbelievers unconditionally, regardless of the believers faith when engaging their enemies. Divine assistance is contingent on full trust in God on the battlefield. 

If God willed, He could erase all traces of corruption resulting from man's misuse of his freewill, and He could make all mankind follow the straight path whether they wished to or not, canceling the capacity of freechoice 6:35. But after giving man the inner (understanding of good and evil) and outward (divine revelation, surrounding signs) tools to fulfill the role for which he was created -worship Allah through his freewill-, God has decreed that there will be no coercion in religion 2:256,18:29. Absence of coercion does not imply that it is beyind Allah's power to enforce the unity of mankind 

42:8,2:253,5:48,6:35,149,11:118"And if your Lord had pleased He would certainly have made people a single nation". 

But making mankind one nation would discharge it from its accountability as God's vicegerent, a creature placed above most others. It would cancel its ability to rise in spiritual merit, even above the angels who worship Allah out of compulsion. People are left to make their own choices despite Allah's will for them being clearly laid out 6:148,150. Allah, who maintains the laws of causality, allows the outcomes of their deeds even though He might disapprove them 

17:38"All of that, the sin of it, is hateful in the sight of your Lord".

Guidance is made available to all, and signs of Allah's presence are available whichever way one looks 2:115. There is therefore no need to force anyone in walking aright.