The Differences in Usage between »If Allah Wills « and »With Allahʹs Permission« in the Holy Qurʹan: A Study in Structure

Abstract

In the contemporary Arabic tongue, it’s common to say «with Allah›s permission» (Be’theneAllah) instead of «If Allah wills» (Insha’Allah) when intending to do something in the future. None of the scholars separated their use, rather they allowed that. The research aims to check the validity of this, depending on what was stated in Qur’an, so the following questions were asked: is the replacement of «with Allah’s permission» by «If Allah wills» correct to indicate the same meaning? Do the two words ‘permission’ and ‘will’ differ in linguistic meanings? Are the semantics of both phrases in their various contexts similar? The study adopts the descriptive approach, making context its base to clarify these semantics. The research concludes few results, the most important are: Allah’s will state ‘creation’, and Allah’s permission means «informing of the license», which is only used when his will has been given already. Therefore, the will isn’t interpreted by the permission but it’s the opposite. Moreover, the two phrases are different in semantics, the first is conditioned upon Allah’s will occurrence, so it’s used with the uncertainty that the event will happen, and the second is related to the preposition ‘with’, indicating the assertion of the event happening. Therefore, it isn’t right for «with Allah’s permission» to replace «If Allah wills». The opposite is possible in special cases, when the time of event occurrence is obscured or when praying Allah, hoping to achieve it.