and the sense here is: “Were it not for fear that I would impose hardship on my community, I would have made the use of the siwāk compulsory for them.” The particle lowlā is formed from law, which denotes the absence of something because of the absence of something else, joined to the negative particle lā. Thus the ḥadith shows that the command was withheld because hardship would have ensued. Grammatically it must have an expressed or implied apodosis, indicated by context, and in its answer the prefixed lām is not to be over-used.
• an: an infinitive-making particle; together with the verb it governs, it stands in the nominative as a subject whose predicate is omitted. The sense is: “Were it not for fear of hardship for my community….” It may also be understood as being raised by an omitted verb: “Were hardship not feared….”
• ashaqq: from shiqq, meaning toil and hardship, as in the verse, “and they carry your loads to a land you could not have reached except with great strain upon yourselves; your Lord is indeed Most Kind, Most Merciful” (16:7).
• la-amartuhum: the answer to lowlā.
• bi-l-siwāk: with a kasrah on the sīn and fatḥah on the wāw, followed by an alif and then a kāf—that is, using the siwāk, for the siwāk is the implement itself; its detailed discussion will come in its proper place, God willing.

Points derived from the ḥadith

1. The strong recommendation to use the siwāk at every ablution, with a reward approaching that of obligatory acts.
2. Using the siwāk at the time of ablution and at other acts of worship is not obligatory; the Prophet ﷺ refrained from making it binding out of concern for his community’s hardship.
3. What prevented him from declaring it obligatory was the fear that people might fail to perform it and thereby incur sin.
4. This noble ḥadith is among the proofs for the major juridical maxim, “Hardship brings about ease”; the anticipated hardship was the reason it was not made compulsory.
5. Many meritorious acts of worship were left by the Prophet ﷺ, or he withheld commanding his community to perform them, lest they become obligatory upon them—such as performing night prayers in Ramadan in congregation, using the siwāk, and delaying the ʿIshāʾ prayer to its most virtuous time—all out of compassion and mercy for his ummah.