in which they had cooked it: “Pour out what they contain and break them.” The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) also said concerning the vessels of the People of the Scripture, when Abū Thaʿlaba al-Khushanī asked him about them: “If you can find others, do not eat from them; but if you cannot, wash them thoroughly with water.” This is because once people become accustomed to sin, they may not break away from it fully unless they also abandon permissible things that closely resemble it. As has been said, “A servant does not attain true piety until he places a barrier of lawful things between himself and what is forbidden.” Conversely, there are times when a sin can be abandoned only gradually, rather than all at once.

Each of these occurs at times. For this reason, the Sunnah of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) grants someone who might otherwise be repelled from obedience dispensations in certain matters through which he can avoid what is forbidden. By contrast, someone whose faith and patience are trusted may be prohibited from certain things that it would be recommended for him to forgo, so as to urge him all the more toward what is best. For the same reason, someone whose faith and patience are trusted may be recommended to undertake bodily and financial acts of devotion—such as giving away all his wealth, as Abū Bakr al-Siddīq did—that are not recommended for someone whose condition is not the same. This is like the man who came to him with an egg-sized lump of gold. He threw it at him, and had it struck him, it would have hurt him. He then said, “One of you goes and gives away his wealth, then sits down as a burden upon the people.”

Evidence for this is the authentic report narrated by Muslim that we cited earlier, from Thābit ibn al-Dahhāk, that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) “forbade sharecropping, instructed them to lease the land, and said, ‘There is no harm in it.’” There is also the report of Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqās mentioned earlier: “He forbade them