a collective obligation; if some members of the community discharge it, no sin falls upon the rest.
‘He has set limits, so do not overstep them.’ Concerning the obligatory duties He said: ‘Do not neglect them; rather, guard them carefully and carry them out in the required manner.’ He has set limits—that is, He has fixed a specific boundary for each matter. The five daily prayers, for example, have their own limits, namely their appointed times: Ẓuhr runs from the sun’s passing the meridian until an object’s shadow equals its own length in addition to the initial noon shadow; ʿAṣr lasts from that point until sunset; Maghrib from sunset until the disappearance of the red twilight; ʿIshāʾ from the fading of the red twilight until midnight; and Fajr from the break of dawn until sunrise. These are their limits.
Fasting likewise has a limit: from the first light of dawn until sunset. Pilgrimage has its limits too—set months and particular locations, and so on. Thus He has ordained boundaries; do not cross them. Allah the Exalted says, ‘Whoever transgresses the bounds set by Allah has indeed wronged himself,’ and, ‘Whoever transgresses the limits set by Allah—it is they who are the wrongdoers.’
‘And He has kept silent about certain matters out of mercy for you, so do not seek them out.’ He remained silent about things He neither made obligatory nor declared unlawful. Had He willed, He could have imposed on us whatever He wished and forbidden whatever He wished. Yet He refrained from legislating certain matters; were it not for His mercy, He would have made them binding upon us.
Consider the daily prayers. When Allah first decreed them, He imposed fifty prayers in every day and night; then, in His grace, He reduced them to five in practice while keeping their reward as fifty. Many other matters Allah has likewise pardoned; had He wished, He would have required them of us.
The Prophet’s words, ‘He has kept silent about certain matters,’ also constitute evidence for the position of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah that Allah speaks with an audible voice, for silence is the opposite of speech, and it is—