“And do not kill your children for fear of poverty” (17:31). Allah is more merciful to His servants than a mother is to her child, so He forbade parents from this most base and contemptible act—killing their children out of fear of poverty and destitution—for it involves a number of crimes:
• the taking of life, which is among the gravest forms of corruption;
• even worse, the murder of one’s own children, the very pieces of one’s heart;
• harboring evil thoughts about the Lord of all worlds;
• and their gross ignorance and misguidance in imagining that their children’s existence will restrict their provision, whereas He has already guaranteed to provide for everyone.

How far removed this repugnant trait is from the character of the elite believers! Whenever their children and dependants increase, their good opinion of Allah only strengthens; they hope for an added share of His bounty, meet their dependants’ needs with tranquil hearts, praise their Lord for placing provision in their hands, thank Him for enabling them to discharge it, expect His reward with Him, and perceive His favor upon them in all of that. The Prophet ﷺ said: “You are granted victory and provision only because of your weak ones (1)—through their supplication and their earnest turning to Allah” (2).

The prohibition of approaching zina (fornication/adultery) includes shunning the act itself and every cause and prelude that leads to it: the forbidden gaze, seclusion with a woman who is not one’s lawful relative, speaking to someone in a manner that is feared to stir temptation, and the like.

Allah described zina with the ugliest of epithets, calling it “a faḥisha” (17:32)—a heinous crime detested by revelation and reason alike—because it violates the sanctity of the sacred law and treats it lightly, and because it entails the corruption of