can it serve as the rationale for his statement, “When one of you fights, let him avoid the face”? It is well known that a person’s resemblance to Adam does not exempt him from punishment. If someone resembled one of the prophets more closely than offspring resemble their father in overall form and facial appearance, and then incurred a punishment, his resemblance to that prophet would not exempt him from it, by the consensus of the Muslims. How, then, can the prohibition of punishment be justified merely by a general resemblance to Adam?

Ninth: Among Adam’s descendants are those who are superior to Adam, and the wording applies equally to them all. If the statement were not intended to refer to something peculiar to Adam—his initial creation in an image—but merely to the resemblance of the person being struck and insulted to him, then mentioning all the prophets and messengers in general would have been more appropriate. Indeed, singling out someone other than Adam, such as Abraham, Moses, or Jesus, would have been more fitting. Although Adam is their father, according to these people’s view, there is nothing in this context that distinguishes him from them.

Tenth—and this, too, is conclusive: The fact that a face resembles the face of