—in one of the limits set by Allah?!”

He then rose and addressed the people, explaining the gravity of such intercession, for it suspends the legal limits ordained by Allah. Because the matter concerned many of them, he informed them that the very cause of the ruin of those before them—both in their religion and in their worldly life—was that they enforced the punishments upon the weak and poor while leaving the strong and wealthy untouched. Disorder consequently engulfed them, evil and corruption spread, and they justly incurred Allah’s wrath and punishment.

He ﷺ then swore—and he is the truthful, the one believed—that if this deed had been committed even by the foremost woman of the worlds, his own daughter Fāṭimah (may Allah protect her from it), he would nonetheless carry out upon her the ruling of Allah Most High.

2 – The prohibition of interceding regarding the fixed punishments, and the duty to censure the intercessor, once the case has reached the ruler.

Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd said: “This ḥadīth is proof that intercession concerning a fixed punishment is impermissible after it has reached the authority, and it highlights the gravity of showing favoritism to the nobles in matters that belong to Allah.”

I say: Limiting this to “before it reaches the judge” is not taken from the present ḥadīth, but from other texts—such as the report narrated by the compilers of the Sunan and by Aḥmad from Ṣafwān ibn Umayyah. When the Prophet ﷺ ordered the hand of the man who had stolen his cloak to be cut and Ṣafwān tried to intercede for him, he said, “Could you not have done that before you brought him to me?”

As for the stage before the matter reaches the ruler, should one report it or overlook it?

The preferable course is to weigh the benefits and harms that will follow. If the person is not known for habitual evil or harm, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Overlook the slips of those with dignified bearing.”

If, however, reporting the case would entail some harm, it is better not to forward it, and if—