A Chinese friend of mine ever asked ” You Muslim, is the word INSYA-ALLAH used for things you’re not sure whether you’re gonna do or not?”
I replied with a question “Why do you say that?”
He answered “Because most Muslims I met, if they can, they say “CAN” lah, if they can’t then they say “CAN’T” but for some things they’re not sure about they say “INSYA ALLAH”. Like when you ask them “Are you coming?” then they say “See la how, insya-Allah”, but I know they’re not coming. When I ask them back the next day, they’ll say “I don’t say I’m coming, I say Insya-Allah”. So, is it like that?”
Many Muslims including me, like to use the Arabic word, without knowing the meaning and where to use it. Maybe we’ll be seen as more beriman by using those words. I still remember an incident in a seminar when my friend said something using Arabic word, and the speaker ask her “Do you know what you’re talking about? Do you understand the word you just said?”.
Of course she didn’t. Main hentam saja.
Many of us use Insya-Allah as an escape. As what my Chinese friend said, sometimes we use it to escape from any responsibility. Like “Aku tak cakap ya, aku kata insya-Allah”.
It is not a word to be played with, it means “If God (Allah) will”. In Surah al-Kahfi verse 24 Allah said “And never say of anything, ‘I shall do such and such thing tomorrow. Except (with the saying): ‘If God wills!’ And remember your Lord when you forget…’“. See the word I SHALL, it is an obligation. Meaning you WILL do such and such except if Allah says “No”.
Unfortunately usually we used it in the other way.
When I was in school, I was kinda a mencapab person, I used to be facilitators for many programs. The most common thing was, when I asked the participants,
“Would you come for Malam Kebudayaan tonight?” (example)
“YESSS!!!” with a very energetic gesture.
“Would you study hard to pass the exam?”
“Insya-Allah…” in a very slow tone and no confident face.
My teacher told us to say “We can, insya-Allah”.
According to Ibnu Abbas, it is an obligatory for Muslims to say Insya-Allah for things we intend to do in the future, even if we forget to say it, we have to mention it later when we remember. But it is not for the things we don’t want to do or commit in the first place.
Insya-Allah is used for things we’re really want to do, or we wish to do and occur, so we need Allah’s blessing about it. It should not be used for things we’re not sure about, or as an escape for things we have no keen to give commitment on.
if we don’t want to commit, say that, and don’t hang our responsibility on Allah pulak.
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