So, does that constitute approval? No—it is a warning.

In any event, every king keeps a ḥimā—justly or unjustly—and when people come to graze around that sanctuary, the lush, green land, they have no power to stop the animals from wandering in and feeding.

The Prophet ﷺ then declared, “Indeed, the ḥimā of Allah is His sacred prohibitions.” Allah has surrounded the Sacred Law with a well-fortified fence: anything He has forbidden—because it harms people in their religion or in their worldly life—He has placed under His protection. And whenever the human soul particularly yearns for something, He tightens the fence around it all the more.

Consider fornication (Allah protect us). Its root is the strength of desire coupled with weak faith, and souls are inclined toward it by nature. Therefore Allah set up a barrier to keep people far away from it, saying, “Do not come near fornication” (Surah al-Isrāʾ 17:32). He did not merely say, “Do not commit fornication,” but rather, “Do not come near it,” thereby including every means that leads to it—looking, touching, conversation, and so forth.

Likewise, Allah has forbidden riba (usury). Because people covet it for the profit it yields, He blocked every path that leads to it, proscribing all legal ruses designed to circumvent the ban. In this way Allah has established a protective sanctuary around every prohibition, shielding people from falling into it.

He ﷺ went on to say, “Truly, within the body there is a morsel of flesh: if it is sound, the whole body is sound; and if it is corrupt, the whole body is corrupt. Verily, it is the heart.”

The word muḍghah refers to a small piece of flesh—about the amount one can chew. Though small, its importance is immense, for it directs the entire body: “When it is sound, the whole body is sound, and when…”