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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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How to reconcile the hadith "If it were not for the weakness of the weak and the illness of the sick..." with the prohibition against saying "if only"?

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Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. The questioner says: In the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding the 'Isha' prayer, "If it were not for the weakness of the weak and the illness of the sick," how do we reconcile this with his prohibition (peace and blessings be upon him) against saying "if only"?

Answer:
This is a matter of... This is a matter of... The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
If I had known beforehand about my affair what I have come to know later, I would not have brought the sacrificial animals with meلو استقبلت من أمري ما استدبرت لما سقت الهدي ولا
Sunan Abi Dawud 1784
I have been made permissible for you, so the word "if only" (lawla) and the word "if" (law) are not absolutely prohibited, they are not absolutely prohibited, when they are in matters of knowledge and matters of worship, and there is a...
...regret for something that has passed from worship and reward, then there is no harm in that. It is only prohibited if the intention behind it is to blame the divine decree and destiny (qada' wa qadar). "Strive for what benefits you, seek help from Allah, and do not be weak. If something befalls you, [regret it]." Strive for what benefits you, seek help from Allah, and do not be weak.
So if something befalls you other than what you desired, do not say, "If only I had done such and such, then such and such would have happened." But say, "The decree of Allah, and what He willed, He did." This is because it involves blaming the divine decree.
As for when it is a blame that does not involve blaming the divine decree, but rather a blame on oneself and regret on oneself, and regret for what has passed from worship, there is nothing wrong with that. Yes.
Source قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، كيف الجمع بين حديث لولا ضعف الضعيف وسقم السقيم الحديث وبين النهي عن قول لولا؟ — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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