—Allah ridicules them, and they will have a painful punishment.”

When the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) urged people to give in the year of the expedition to Tabūk, one of the Companions brought a purse so heavy that he could barely carry it. They said, “He is showing off.” Another brought a sā‘ (a measure of grain), and they said, “Allah certainly had no need of so-and-so’s sā‘.” They disparaged both, so Allah revealed this verse. It became a warning to those who disparage believers who obey Allah and His Messenger. And Allah knows best.

He was asked:

If a man hears a passage of the Quran containing a verse calling for prostration and prostrates without ablution, does he sin, become a disbeliever, or have his wife divorced from him?

He answered:

He does not become a disbeliever, nor is his wife thereby divorced, but according to most scholars he sins. However, some scholars of Abū Hanīfa’s school have stated that anyone who performs without ablution a prayer for which ritual purity is unanimously held to be a prerequisite—such as the five daily prayers—thereby becomes a disbeliever. If he becomes a disbeliever, he is an apostate, and according to Abū Hanīfa, an apostate’s marriage is dissolved. Yet this ruling of disbelief has not been transmitted from Abū Hanīfa himself or from his two principal students, but only from his followers. The majority of scholars hold that he is subject to discretionary punishment and does not become a disbeliever unless he deems this permissible and mocks the prayer.

As for the prostration of recitation, some scholars have held that it is permissible without