“So fear Allah as much as you are able.”

When two obligations conflict and cannot both be fulfilled, and the more binding one is given precedence, the other is no longer obligatory in those circumstances. Someone who leaves it to fulfil the more binding obligation has not, in fact, neglected an obligation. Likewise, when two prohibited acts coincide and the greater can only be avoided by committing the lesser, committing the lesser is not, in fact, prohibited in those circumstances. There is no harm in calling the former the omission of an obligation and the latter the commission of a prohibited act, if these descriptions are understood in general terms. In such cases, one speaks of omitting an obligation for a valid excuse, or committing a prohibited act for an overriding benefit, out of necessity, or to avert something more strictly prohibited.

Similarly, someone who sleeps through a prayer or forgets it is said to have performed it outside its normally prescribed time, as a make-up prayer. Yet the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“Whoever sleeps through a prayer or forgets it should pray it when he remembers it, for that is its time. There is no expiation for it other than that.”

This subject of conflicting requirements is exceedingly broad, especially in times and places where the legacy of prophethood and the prophetic caliphate has diminished. Such cases become frequent there, and the greater that decline, the more numerous these cases become. Their occurrence is among the causes of discord within the Muslim community, for when good deeds become mixed with bad, there arises