—its root cause being debt. Allah knows best.

The wisdom behind the Prophet’s ﷺ coupling of sin with debt is that sin entails loss in the Hereafter, whereas debt entails loss in this world. This was pointed out by the eminent scholar Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on him. Allah is the One who grants success.

Thirteenth Note

The author says at the end of his pamphlet:

“Important notice: The treatise on the prayer that is attributed to Imām Aḥmad—may Allah have mercy on him—and that has been reprinted many times, has been proven, in our estimation, to be inauthentically ascribed to Imām Aḥmad. Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī even said of it, ‘I fear it may be fabricated.’ We shall publish our investigation of this soon, Allah willing; therefore, let no one be deceived by anything in it that conflicts with this book of ours.” End quote.

I say: This is a very strange notice and an unwarranted display of audacity. The author has marred his pamphlet with this baseless caveat. I suspect he intended thereby to reject what Imām Aḥmad—may Allah have mercy on him—established in his treatise, namely that the knees are to precede the hands when entering prostration, because that view is contrary to what he has stated and endorsed in his own pamphlet. The verbatim words of Imām Aḥmad—may Allah have mercy on him—were cited earlier under the Eighth Note; let the reader refer to them.