little by little is like the Messenger’s gradual explanation of what he was sent with. It is well known that the Messenger conveys only what people can learn and put into practice. The religious law did not come all at once. As the saying goes:

“If you wish to be obeyed, command only what can be done.”

Likewise, one who renews the Messenger’s religion and revives his Sunnah goes no further than what people can learn and put into practice. Someone entering Islam cannot, at the moment of entering it, be taught all its laws and commanded to observe them all. The same applies to someone repenting of sins. Nor can a student or someone seeking guidance be commanded at the outset to observe the entire religion and be presented with all religious knowledge, for he cannot bear that. If it is beyond his capacity, it is not obligatory for him in that situation. Since it is not obligatory, neither the scholar nor the ruler may impose it all upon him at the outset. Rather, they must refrain from issuing commands and prohibitions concerning what cannot yet be learned and put into practice until that becomes possible, just as the Messenger refrained from addressing certain matters until the time came to explain them.

This does not amount to condoning prohibited acts or neglecting to enjoin obligations, because obligation and prohibition are conditional upon the ability to acquire knowledge and act upon it, and we have stipulated that this condition is absent. Reflect, then, on this principle, for it is beneficial.

This makes clear why many of these requirements cease to apply—even though the acts concerned are obligatory or prohibited in principle—when it is impossible to convey the message in a way that establishes Allah’s proof concerning