for his ijtihād, as the authentic ḥadīth states: “If he strives and errs, he still receives one reward.”

2 – The one who bears the liability and incurs the sin is the person who wins the case through falsehood, for the infallible Prophet ﷺ said: “I am only handing him a piece of the Fire.”

3 – Al-Ḥāfiẓ remarked: The ḥadīth shows that when someone claims property without evidence and the defendant takes an oath, whereupon the judge rules in favour of the oath-taker, he is not exonerated in reality, nor is the sin removed by the judicial verdict. This is the view of the majority of scholars, including the three Imāms. Abū Ḥanīfah differed, holding that the ruling is effective both outwardly and inwardly; thus, were a judge to validate a marriage on the basis of perjured testimony, the woman would be lawful to the claimant. He argued from reports that furnish no proof and by an analogy too weak to stand against the explicit text.

4 – The ḥadīth is evidence of the enormity of the sin of one who litigates for something false: even if he acquires it outwardly, it is forbidden to him inwardly. Should he contrive legal stratagems so that, on the surface, the matter appears his right, it is still impermissible for him to consume it in reality.

5 – The ḥadīth also refutes the fanciful, misguided extremists who exalt the Prophet ﷺ beyond the lofty rank Allah has granted him, attributing to him qualities of lordship and divinity and a knowledge of the unseen—claims from which Islam itself is free.

Allah the Exalted commanded him to proclaim to the people:
“Say, ‘I possess no power to benefit or harm myself except as Allah wills. Had I possessed knowledge of the unseen, I would have amassed abundant good and no harm would have touched me. I am only a warner and a bearer of glad tidings to people who believe.’” (7:188)

Shaykh Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā said in his Tafsīr: This verse is among the greatest foundations of religion and of its creedal principles, for it clarifies the reality of prophethood, separates it from lordship and divinity, and demolishes the very pillars of polytheism and the structures of idolatry from the ground up. Allah commanded him to make clear to the people that all affairs are in Allah’s hand alone, that all knowledge of the unseen belongs to Him, and that the Prophet ﷺ negates both claims for himself, for those who used to ask him ﷺ about