May a Muslim say: I am a believer, God willing?

The "exception in faith" (al-istithna' fi al-iman) is a Muslim saying of himself, "I am a believer, God willing." Ibn Batta al-Ukbari gives it a chapter in al-Ibana al-Kubra, and the book's editor notes that scholars hold three views on it. ¹

Ibn Batta opens the chapter by saying that believers are marked by constant apprehension for their faith and great caution for their religion. Their hearts fear that faith may be taken from them; they do not know what God will do with them in the rest of their lives, and they are wary of praising themselves. ^{1 2} He narrates with his chain the report that Aisha asked the Prophet ﷺ whether those who "give what they give with hearts afraid" are people who steal, commit adultery and drink wine. He answered no: it is the one who fasts, prays and gives charity and fears it will not be accepted. The editor traces the report to al-Tirmidhi and others. ³ Ibn Batta then says that because this apprehension stayed in their hearts, they kept to the exception in their speech. It is a mark of people of reason and knowledge, he says, to say "I am a believer, God willing", "not by way of doubt", since faith is acknowledgement of God's lordship, submission in servanthood and belief in Him. ³

In his study the editor sets out what the exception means to those who use it. It refers the matter to God's will. It avoids being certain about what one cannot know of one's future deeds and their acceptance. It expresses hope of remaining steadfast, and it avoids praising oneself. In these scholars' view, he says, refusing the exception is linked to the position of the Murji'a, who exclude action from faith. ^{4 5} He quotes Ibn Taymiyya as saying that the early hadith scholars, such as Ibn Mas'ud, Ibn Uyayna and Ahmad ibn Hanbal, made the exception in faith. According to this quotation, this is mass-transmitted from them, and they made it because faith includes doing what is obligatory, so they would not testify to that for themselves. ⁶

In Kitab al-Iman, Ibn Taymiyya sets out three views: those who require the exception, those who forbid it, and those who allow both in two senses, which he holds the soundest. ⁷ He attributes the prohibition to the Murji'a and the Jahmiyya, who make faith a single thing a person knows in himself as he knows that he recited the Fatiha, so that they see one who makes the exception as doubting and call such people "the doubters". ^{7 8} He gives those who require it two grounds. The first is that faith is what the servant brings to his Lord at death; he calls this the ground of many later Kullabis, held by none of the early generations, and says some carried it so far that they made the exception in everything. ^{8 9 10} The second is that unqualified faith includes doing all that is commanded and leaving all that is forbidden, so that one who testifies to it for himself praises himself and testifies to what he does not know; this he calls the ground of the generality of the early generations who made the exception. ¹¹

He quotes reports from al-Khallal that Ahmad disliked one man asking another "Are you a believer?", calling it an innovation the Murji'a introduced to argue for their view, that he would say "We are the Muslims", and that he did not object to someone leaving out the exception if he did not intend what the Murji'a intended; and that Sufyan ibn Uyayna would not answer such a questioner but say: your question to me is an innovation, and I do not doubt my faith. He concludes that Ahmad and other early scholars were certain of the faith in their hearts and referred the exception to unqualified faith, which includes doing what is commanded. ¹²

The holders of the view that forbids it, among the Hanafis, the Maturidis and others, have not yet been added with their statements from their own books. Academic readings of the question have not been added either.