—seeking, may Allah protect us, to commit fornication with her. She would not agree and adamantly refused. Later a hard year befell her: poverty and acute need pressed upon her, and she felt driven—wrongly, yet out of desperation—to surrender herself for fornication. That, of course, is impermissible, but in any case it is what occurred. She came back to him, and he handed her 120 dinars—one hundred and twenty gold coins—so that she would allow him access to herself. Compelled by need, she accepted. When he had taken the place before her that a husband takes before his wife, poised to commit the act, she pronounced these astonishing, momentous words: “Fear Allah, and do not break the seal except with its due right.”

With that she made him mindful of Allah and hinted that if he sought her lawfully she would not object, but to “break the seal” unlawfully was something she could not permit, for she regarded it as an act of disobedience. Hence her admonition: “Fear Allah.” Those words—spoken from the depths of her heart—struck the depths of his own. He rose from her while she was still the dearest of people to him; his desire for her had not cooled, nor did he despise her—her love remained in his heart. Yet the fear of Allah overpowered him, so he withdrew, beloved as she was, and left with her the gold he had given—one hundred and twenty dinars. Then he supplicated: “O Allah, if I did that purely for Your sake, relieve us of the hardship we are in.” The rock shifted again, though they were still unable to leave.

This is one of Allah’s signs, for Allah is powerful over all things. Had He willed, the boulder could have rolled away at the very first plea; but He—glorified and exalted—kept it in place until each of them had completed the righteous deed he meant to present as his intercession.