as in His words:

“You will be called to face a people of great might, whom you will fight unless they submit. If you obey, Allah will grant you a good reward; but if you turn away as you turned away before, He will punish you with a painful punishment.”

His condemnation, in several passages of the Quran, of those who turn away shows that obedience to Allah and His Messenger is obligatory, and that an unqualified command requires obedience and entails condemnation of whoever turns away from obeying it. Likewise, He attaches condemnation to disobedience without qualification in such statements as:

“But Pharaoh disobeyed the messenger.”

It has been said that “forever” is mentioned in the Quran only in threats against the disbelievers. Thus He says:

“Whoever kills a believer deliberately, his recompense is Hell, abiding therein. Allah is angry with him, has cursed him, and has prepared for him a tremendous punishment.”

He says concerning those who act unjustly in matters of inheritance:

“Whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger and transgresses His limits, He will admit him into a Fire, abiding therein, and he will have a humiliating punishment.”

Here He qualifies disobedience by mentioning the transgression of His limits, rather than speaking of it without qualification. He also says:

“Adam disobeyed his Lord and went astray.”

This was a particular act of disobedience. Allah Most High also says:

“Until you lost courage, disputed over the command, and disobeyed after He had shown you what you loved.”

He thus describes a specific instance of disobedience: the archers’ disobedience to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. He had ordered them to remain at their post even if they saw that the Muslims had won. Those of them who disobeyed did so by violating this command. Their commander continued to give them orders when they saw the disbelievers retreating, while some of them turned to the spoils.

Likewise, in His words:

“And He has made disbelief, wickedness, and disobedience hateful to you,”

He distinguishes three levels.

He also says:

“And that they will not disobey you in what is right.”

Here He qualifies disobedience. Hence it has been interpreted as wailing over the dead. This interpretation was given by Ibn ʿAbbās and has also been narrated as a statement of the Prophet. Likewise, Zayd ibn Aslam said that they must not cry out in woe or scratch