The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, had told them this before the verse was revealed, without specifying a time. It is established by agreement among the jurists that if a man says, “By Allah, I will do such-and-such,” and there is neither a circumstance nor an intention requiring him to act immediately, he may postpone it until another time. Thus, nothing in the apparent meaning of Allah’s words or those of His Messenger required them to hasten to the Sacred House and circumambulate it.

Nevertheless, when this man—the best of the community after Abū Bakr—thought that the apparent meaning required immediate action, he raised the matter with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and then with his close companion. Each answered, in the other’s absence, that nothing in the wording required immediate action; rather, whoever understood it that way had misunderstood it. The error was his, not the result of any deficiency in the wording’s ability to convey its meaning.

It is also related in the authentic collection that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“Whoever is subjected to scrutiny in the reckoning will be punished.

Aisha said: I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, does Allah not say in His Book: “He will be given an easy reckoning” [al-Inshiqāq: 8]?’ Then I said: ‘That refers to the presentation; whoever is subjected to scrutiny in the reckoning will be punished.’”

It is clear that the apparent meaning of His words, “He will be given an easy reckoning” [al-Inshiqāq: 8], does not indicate that the person called to account will be subjected to scrutiny. Rather, the apparent meaning of the expression “an easy reckoning” is that it involves no such scrutiny. Nevertheless, when he said, “Whoever is subjected to scrutiny will be punished,” a woman who loved him and whom he loved—the woman he loved most, whose father was the man he loved most—thought that the apparent meaning of his words conflicted with that verse. She asked him about it and did not remain silent.