—when they reproached me for anything, he would say, “Leave him alone; had something been decreed it would have come to pass.”

This sits side-by-side with his statement—related in the sound hadith: “When a woman of the noblest stock of Quraysh, from the clan of Makhzum, committed theft, he ordered that her hand be cut off. They asked, ‘Who will speak to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, on her behalf?’ They said, ‘No one would dare except Usama ibn Zayd.’ So they approached him, and Usama spoke to him about her. He said, ‘O Usama! Do you seek to intervene in one of the penal limits set by Allah? The very people before you were ruined because, when a noble person among them stole, they let him go, but when a weak person stole, they enforced the punishment upon him. By Him in whose hand is Muhammad’s soul, had Fatimah…’"}