may Allah bless him and grant him peace: ‘Say: “We hear, we obey, and we submit.”’ He said: Allah then instilled faith in their hearts and revealed:

‘Allah does not burden a soul beyond what it can bear. It will have the good it has earned and bear the evil it has committed,’

and the subsequent verses, up to His words, ‘or make a mistake.’ Allah said, ‘I have done so.’ And so on to the end of the surah, He said, ‘I have done so.’”

In Sahīh Muslim, al-‘Alā’ ibn ‘Abd al-Rahmān narrates from his father, from Abū Hurayra, who said:

“When the following was revealed to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

‘To Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth. Whether you reveal what is within yourselves or conceal it, Allah will call you to account for it,’

this weighed heavily upon the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. They knelt down and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, we have been charged with deeds within our capacity: prayer, fasting, fighting in Allah’s cause, and charity. But this verse has now been revealed to you, and we cannot bear it.’

The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, ‘Do you wish to say what the People of the Book said: “We hear and we disobey”? Rather, say: “We hear and we obey. We seek Your forgiveness, our Lord, and to You is the final return.”’

When the people recited it and their tongues readily uttered it, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, revealed immediately thereafter:

‘The Messenger believes in what has been sent down to him from his Lord,’

up to His words, ‘and to You is the final return.’

When they did that, He, glorified be He, abrogated it, and Allah revealed:

‘Allah does not burden a soul beyond what it can bear,’

up to His words, ‘before us.’ He said, ‘Yes.’

‘And do not burden us with what we have no strength to bear.’ He said, ‘Yes.’

And so on to the end of the surah, He said, ‘Yes.’”

The position held by the majority of hadith scholars and jurists is that it is possible for them to err in