Islam.

Yet Allah tests people through one another. When a believer shows patience, seeks reward from his Lord, waits for relief from Allah, and at the same time employs the lawful means that lead to his objective, Allah makes matters easy for him.

The essential point is that Allah has forbidden us to resemble those who were given the Scripture before us whose hearts became hard. In our own times, however, many of us have come to imitate those very people whose hearts had hardened, and many of them have likewise lapsed into open sin and turned away from the obedience of Allah.

The author then remarks: “The verses on this topic are many and well known.”

Among the hadiths on the matter is the report narrated by Abdullah ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both): “The Prophet ﷺ took hold of my shoulders.” In other words, he grasped him; the mankib is the top of the shoulder. He did so to make Ibn ʿUmar pay full attention to what the Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him—was about to say.

This reflects the Prophet’s excellent teaching method, for whenever he spoke he would use whatever means would focus the listener’s attention—whether by action, as here, or by words, as when he said, “Shall I inform you of the gravest of major sins?” They responded, “Yes indeed, O Messenger of Allah.” He framed it that way precisely to alert them.