It is reported that ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb, may Allah be pleased with him, said:

“The bonds of Islam are undone, one by one, only when people grow up within Islam who do not know the pre-Islamic age of ignorance.”

This is the condition of many who have grown up in the security of Islam without knowing what opposes it so as to recognize its invalidity. Their hearts do not hold Islam in the same reverence as the hearts of those who have known both opposites.

Among the familiar sayings are:

“It is through its opposite that a thing’s beauty is revealed.”

“Things become clear through their opposites.”

Comparison and analogy are of two kinds: analogy by similarity and analogy by contrast.

Analogy by similarity compares a thing with its counterpart, so that the ruling concerning it is made the same as the ruling concerning its counterpart.

Analogy by contrast compares a thing with its opposite, so that the ruling concerning it is known to be the opposite of the ruling concerning the other.

Allah’s words:

“So take heed, O people of insight.” [Al-Hashr: 2]

Encompass both kinds. A person of understanding takes a lesson from Allah’s punishment of those who denied His messengers, as He did with Banū al-Nadīr, and thus desires the opposite outcome and fears a similar one. He therefore employs analogy by similarity in fear and analogy by contrast in hope.

An example of analogy by contrast is the reasoning of someone who argues that the witr prayer is not obligatory: “For it is performed on a riding animal, in accordance with the Sunnah of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”