and replacing what He has set out in detail with something else.

When Allah the Exalted says, “These are the limits set by Allah—so do not approach them” (al-Baqarah 2:187), He is referring to the things He has forbidden. His words “so do not approach them” prohibit both the act itself and every preliminary step or cause that leads to it and plunges a person into it.

Thus, after He forbade what invalidates the fast and clarified the timeframe of fasting, He concluded, “These are the limits set by Allah—so do not approach them.” Likewise, when He forbade husbands to take back anything of what they had given their wives except in the case of a manifest indecency, He said, “These are the limits set by Allah—so do not approach them.” The same principle appears when He states, “Do not draw near adultery” (al-Isrāʾ 17:32) and “Do not draw near the property of the orphan except in the best manner” (al-Isrāʾ 17:34).

All goodness, happiness, and success lie in knowing Allah’s limits and safeguarding them, whereas the root of every evil and the cause of punishments is ignorance of those limits, neglecting to observe them, or the combination of both. Allah knows best.