should a woman ask for her sister’s divorce so as to empty her bowl and marry her husband, for she will have only what has been decreed for her.”

This prohibits competing with a Muslim in matters of sale and marriage. In sales, one must neither bid against him nor interfere with his sale. If bidding against him is forbidden, then interfering with his purchase is all the more forbidden. He also forbade proposing marriage where another Muslim has already proposed. This implies, all the more, a prohibition on depriving him of his wife. He likewise forbade a woman to seek her sister’s divorce so that she alone might have the husband. Although these prohibitions concern both sale and marriage, they share a common meaning.

Likewise, his saying:

“There are three to whom Allah will not speak, at whom He will not look on the Day of Resurrection, and whom He will not purify; theirs will be a painful punishment: an elderly adulterer, a lying king, and an arrogant pauper.”

These three share this threatened punishment, and they also share the fact that they commit these sins despite having little incentive to do so. An elderly man’s urge to commit adultery is weak. Likewise, a king has little incentive to lie, since he has no need of it, and a poor man has little incentive to be arrogant. When they commit these sins despite such weak incentives, this indicates an evil within their souls for which they deserve a threatened punishment that others do not deserve.

A single hadith rarely contains several statements unless there is some connection between them, although that connection may sometimes escape some people. Thus, connected discourse is called a single hadith.