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Is it permissible to attribute waiting to God in supplication and repentance?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The door of informing about Allah is wider than the door of naming and describing. However, it is not permissible to inform about Him except with what befits Him, even if it is not explicitly mentioned in the texts. This differs from naming and describing, which are Tawqifi (restricted to what is revealed). It is more appropriate to prohibit attributing "waiting" to Allah, due to the ambiguity it carries and because some of its implications have concomitants that are not befitting of Allah. If the speaker intends a correct meaning, we can agree with the meaning but not with the ambiguous wording. The same applies to "Allah longs for your repentance." The correct approach is to refrain from using this wording for Allah, as it has not been mentioned in the Qur’an or Sunnah. It is more appropriate to say: "Allah loves for you to supplicate to Him," or "He rejoices at your repentance."

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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