Insha-Allah is a familiar word for all Muslims. The word is translated as “if Allah wills”. We might not use this word quite often as we don’t know the importance of it. We plan things and rarely say Insha-Allah before executing it. We forget that our planning, no matter how much fool-proof they may be, fall short in front of Allah’s will.

Just to make Muslims aware of the importance of this simple word Insha-Allah, I am sharing a story that has been mentioned in the Quran (Surah Qalam, surah number 68).

He was a pious man

Allah narrates that there was a pious man who was blessed with wealth. He owned gardens that produced the lump-sum amount of fruit. Whenever the man used to pick up the fruits, he used to distribute some of it to the poor.

The poor thereby would gather around his garden when he was to pluck the fruits and the man would never disappoint them. This way he made Allah happy and every season he would get plenty of fruits in his garden.

The pious man died, sons took over

The man had sons, unfortunately, they were not pious and were not kind to the poor. When their father died, they sat together and discussed that they shall keep all the share of the garden with them and shall not distribute among the poor.

They talked about how difficult it is to earn money and how foolishly their father would distribute it among the poor. Yet, they knew that on every harvest the poor would gather around the garden. If they did not give them the fruit it would hurt their status among society.

They were worried about their prestige but not of the anger of Allah. Planning to stop the food of the poor is unacceptable. Allah had been blessing them with plenty of fruit just because a small share of it was being given to the poor.

They didn’t say Insha Allah

So, they planned that they will wake up in early in the morning and pluck up all the fruit. This way they will have all the share with them. They planned to do so in morning and went to sleep.

Yet they did not say “Insha-Allah”. They should have said that Insha-Allah we would wake up in the morning and pluck the fruits.

The fire erupted in the garden

This made Allah angry with them. They showed no faith in Allah Almighty. Allah says in verse 19 of Surah Qalam that they went to sleep with a hope that they would pluck the ripe fruit early in the morning. Yet by the will of Allah, a fire struck in their garden which burnt all their fruit while they were sound asleep.

Unaware that their garden has been burnt down, they woke up in the morning calling each other to get ready for harvesting. They went towards their garden happily saying that no poor shall have a share today. Yet when they reached there, they saw a black pitch.

They got the punishment for their bad intention

They first said that they have come to the wrong way and that it was not their garden. Soon, when the reality struck to them, they found out that their garden has been burnt to black. All the ripe fruits are no more. They planned not to give to the poor so Allah planned not to give them.

Yet the pious among them who had been warning them for their actions said that didn’t I tell you that Allah is great. Allah had been blessing us with plenty because our father was a generous one. This made all them repent of their actions and they turned towards their Lord seeking forgiveness. They then said that may Allah give them a better garden then this so that they could help the poor even more.