Usāmah ibn Zayd was a protégé of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—for Zayd ibn Ḥārithah had been a slave whom Khadījah presented to the Prophet; he later emancipated him and loved him dearly, and he likewise loved Zayd’s son Usāmah. Usāmah therefore approached the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—seeking to intercede for the woman so that her hand would not be cut off. The Prophet replied, “Are you interceding with me regarding one of Allah’s prescribed penalties?”—voicing his disapproval.

He then stood and delivered a sermon to the people, saying, “O people! Those who came before you were ruined because, when a nobleman among them stole, they let him go, but when a weak person stole, they executed the penalty upon him. By Allah—I swear by Allah—were Fāṭimah, the daughter of Muhammad, to steal, I would cut off her hand.”

That Makhzūmite woman was far beneath Fāṭimah in honor and lineage, yet even so the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said, “Were Fāṭimah, daughter of Muhammad, to steal, I would cut off her hand,” in order to block every avenue of intercession or mediation in the ḥudūd (prescribed legal penalties) once the case has reached the ruler.

He—peace and blessings be upon him—also said, “Whoever’s intercession prevents the execution of one of Allah’s prescribed penalties has opposed Allah in His command,” and, “When the prescribed penalties have reached the authority, may Allah curse both the intercessor and the one who accepts the intercession.”

And when the cloak of Safwān ibn Umayyah was stolen while he had been using it as a pillow in the mosque, he came