transgression may encompass both transgression in worship and in declaring things forbidden. These are the two kinds for which Allah censured the polytheists in several places: they practised worship He had not authorized and declared things forbidden without His authorization. Thus, His words,

“Do not forbid,”

and,

“Do not transgress,”

cover both categories.

Transgression here is like transgression in His words:

“And do not cooperate in sin and transgression.”

It may be broader than sin, or it may be a distinct category. Alternatively, transgression may consist in exceeding the limits of prescribed acts, whether obligatory or recommended, and exceeding the bounds of what is permissible; or it may also include exceeding the bounds of prohibition. For there are three categories: what is commanded, what is forbidden, and what is permissible.

After this, He mentioned His words:

“Allah will not hold you accountable for your inadvertent oaths, but He will hold you accountable for oaths you deliberately bind yourselves by. Their expiation is…”

—to the end of the verse. He mentioned this after prohibiting the forbidding of lawful things, to explain the way out when someone has sworn by Allah, or taken an oath of another kind, to forbid himself something lawful. This is used as evidence that declaring something lawful forbidden constitutes an oath.

He then mentioned what He had forbidden of intoxicants, gambling, sacrificial altars, and divining arrows, thereby clarifying what He had forbidden. For some permissivists fall into denying the prohibitions laid down by divine law, just as some of these people fall into forbidding what is lawful. During their strenuous devotional efforts and spiritual discipline, they adopt a prohibitionist stance; then, once they have attained their goal—or so they claim—they become permissivists. And these two