When a gift of milk was being brought to the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—he sent someone after the two men and gave them some to drink. Only then did we realize that he was not displeased with them.” Reported by Muslim.

This ḥadīth shows how often Allah legislated for His Prophet to differ from the Jews; indeed, he opposed them in most of their affairs until they themselves said, “He does not wish to leave any matter of ours without contradicting us in it.”

As we shall clarify, such opposition is sometimes in the very basis of a ruling and at other times in one of its particulars.

Regarding avoidance of the menstruating woman, he did not differ with them in the foundation of the ruling, but in its detail: Allah permitted approaching a menstruating woman in all ways except sexual intercourse at the place of harm. When some of the Companions wanted to carry the opposition further by abandoning what Allah had permitted, the face of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—changed.

In this field—the field of purification—the Jews had been burdened with grievous shackles, whereas the Christians invented the wholesale abandonment of it, until