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Another question arises: if the outward deeds Allah has made obligatory are more than these five, why did he say, “Islam consists of these five”? Some have answered that these are the most conspicuous and greatest rites of Islam: by observing them, a servant completes his Islam, while abandoning them suggests that the bond of his submission has come undone.

The precise explanation, however, is that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, described the religion that constitutes a servant’s unconditional submission to his Lord and is incumbent upon each individual purely as worship owed to Allah. It is therefore obligatory upon everyone capable of it, so that they worship Allah through these acts, devoting their religion sincerely to Him. These are the five. Everything else becomes obligatory only for particular reasons and to secure particular benefits; its obligation therefore does not extend to everyone.

Such duties may be collective obligations, such as jihad, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and the associated responsibilities of leadership, adjudication, issuing legal opinions, teaching recitation, transmitting hadith, and so forth. Alternatively, a duty may arise from a right owed to another person, applying specifically to the one to whom it is owed and the one who owes it. It may lapse if the person entitled to it waives it.

When the intended benefit is achieved or a release is granted—whether through his granting a release or through the realization of that benefit—people’s rights, such as repayment of debts, returning usurped property, borrowed items and deposits entrusted for safekeeping, and providing redress for wrongs against life, property and honour, are simply rights owed to human beings; and if those liable are released from them, they lapse.