— and also the hadith: “The blood of a Muslim who testifies that there is no god but Allah and that I am the Messenger of Allah is not lawful except in three cases: a life for a life, the married adulterer, and the one who abandons his religion.” (1) Al-Bukhari, Ṣaḥīḥ, 12/94, Kitāb al-Hudūd: “Chapter on the words of Allah (As for the male thief and the female thief, cut off their hands)”; and “Chapter on cursing an unidentified thief.” Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, no. 1687, Kitāb al-Hudūd: “Chapter on the ḥadd for theft and its minimum amount.” Al-Nasāʾī, 8/65, Kitāb al-Sāriq: “Chapter on the gravity of theft.” Al-Khattābī comments that the purpose of the hadith is to condemn theft, stigmatise it, and warn of its harmful consequences no matter how small the amount stolen. He is, as it were, saying: if someone begins by stealing something worthless—such as a spoiled egg or a frayed rope—and keeps at it until the practice becomes habitual, it will eventually lead him to steal greater things, until he reaches the amount for which the hand must be amputated, and then his hand will indeed be cut off. The hadith therefore urges one to beware of this act and shun it before habit takes hold, so as to be safe from its evil outcome and grievous end. (*) Maʿjam al-Udabāʾ 3/12–15; al-ʿIbar 3/16; al-Bidāya wa-l-Nihāya 11/310; Ghāyat al-Nihāya fī Ṭabaqāt al-Qurrāʾ 1/49–50; al-Nashr fī al-Qirāʾāt al-ʿAshr 1/34, 89; al-Nujūm al-Zāhira 4/160; Shadharāt al-Dhahab 3/98; Hadiyyat al-ʿĀrifīn 1/67.