how his companions conduct themselves, how they treat him, and so on. Al-Bukhārī relates the episode at length in his Ṣaḥīḥ. Among the questions Heraclius posed was: “What does he order you to do?” They replied, “He commands us to maintain family ties, to speak the truth, and to live chastely.”

By “maintain ties” they meant keeping bonds of kinship; by “truthfulness,” words that conform to reality; and by “chastity,” refraining from fornication, from coveting other people’s wealth, and from violating their honor.

When they had answered, Heraclius concluded, “If what you say is true, he will soon possess the land beneath these two feet of mine.” He said this while he himself was one of the two great rulers of the age—the emperor of Rome and Persia being the other. Though a mighty king, he recognized that what the Prophet ﷺ had brought was the truth, fully aligned with innate human nature and the welfare of humankind, for all of it calls to honesty, chastity, and kinship.

The author—may Allah have mercy on him—then cited other traditions on the same theme, namely the duty of nurturing blood relations. Among them is the report that when the verse “And warn your nearest kinsfolk” (al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:214) was revealed, the Prophet ﷺ gathered the Quraysh. He addressed them both collectively and clan by clan, calling out, “O sons of so-and-so, O sons of so-and-so,” enumerating them branch by branch until he reached his daughter Fāṭimah and said, “O Fāṭimah, save yourself from the Fire, for I can avail you nothing against Allah.” This, too, was an act of keeping family ties.

He also declared that they had a tie of kinship which he would water with its due water—that is, he would nourish it, for severing kinship is a fire and water extinguishes fire; cutting off relatives is death, whereas water is the source of life, as the Exalted says, “We made from water every living thing” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:30). Thus he likened