as a deposit; I am afraid this oppressor may discover it and take it.” Later the oppressor comes to you and asks, “Do you have any money that belongs to So-and-so?” You reply, “By Allah, he has nothing with me.”

The hearer assumes this is a flat denial—“I have nothing of his.” You, however, intend the particle “mā” as a relative pronoun, meaning: “That which I have of his is something.” Thus the statement is actually affirmative, not negative. This is a lawful form of tawriyah (deliberate equivocation); indeed, it may be required when necessity calls for it, but otherwise it should be avoided.

This ḥadīth also shows that when Anas ibn Mālik brought his half-brother, the son of Abū Ṭalḥah, to the Prophet ﷺ, he carried a few dates. The Prophet ﷺ took the dates, chewed them, then placed the moistened pulp in the infant’s mouth and massaged his palate—putting his finger inside and rubbing it. He did so to seek blessing from his own saliva, so that the very first thing to reach the child’s stomach would be the saliva of the Messenger ﷺ. Whenever a child—male or female—was born, the Companions would bring the newborn to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ along with some dates so that he could perform tahnīk (rubbing a newborn’s palate with a chewed date).

The question is: was this tahnīk done to obtain blessing from the Prophet’s saliva, or so that the taste of the dates would reach the infant’s stomach before anything else? If the first, then tahnīk is exclusive to the Messenger ﷺ, for no one’s saliva or perspiration is sought for blessing except his. If the second, then it is for the sake of the dates, so that they are the first thing to reach