Thus, in terms of its composition, jihad is the most comprehensive of the acts of worship, for it may be undertaken with wealth alone, with one’s person alone, or with both.

Religious obligations may also be divided from another perspective into refraining from things one loves and giving up things one loves. This too is a category of religious obligation.

Refraining from things one loves is exemplified by fasting, while giving up things one loves is exemplified by zakah, since wealth is dear to the soul. A person will not part with wealth that he loves except for something dearer to him.

The same applies to refraining from things one loves: a person may find it easy to spend a thousand dirhams, yet find it difficult to fast even a single day—or the reverse. For this reason, some scholars considered it preferable, on the basis of independent legal reasoning, that when one ruler was asked for a legal ruling concerning intercourse during the daytime in Ramadan, he instructed the offender to fast for two consecutive months instead of freeing a slave.

He said: Deterring this ruler by making him fast for two consecutive months is more effective than deterring him by requiring him to free a slave, for he may free a thousand slaves without finding it difficult, whereas fasting a single day would be difficult for him.

But this is unsound legal reasoning, because it contradicts the textual evidence, and because the purpose of expiations is refinement and discipline, not the punishment of a person. Rather, their purpose is to purify him through manumission. The Prophet ﷺ informed us: “Whoever frees a slave, Allah will free from the Fire a limb of his for every limb of that slave.” (1) Thus, it is emancipation from the Fire,