—an ism-fiʿl, a particle that functions as a verb, meaning “hold back,” just as ṣiḥ means “be silent.”

The sense, then, is that the Messenger ﷺ instructed that woman to curb her excessive worship—acts that might later become too hard for her so that she would abandon them altogether. He then ordered us to adopt only such deeds as we can manage, saying, “Take on only what you are able to sustain,” that is, do not overburden and exhaust yourselves. When a person strains and obliges himself beyond his limits, he soon grows weary and fatigued; after that he slackens and quits.

ʿĀʾishah reported that the Prophet ﷺ considered the most beloved religious practice to be the one maintained most consistently, meaning the deed whose practitioner perseveres in it. Even if the act is small, persisting in it is better for you: you perform it with ease and leave off while still eager to return, rather than abandoning it out of boredom.

For this reason the Prophet ﷺ said, “By Allah, Allah does not weary until you weary,” meaning that Allah grants you reward in proportion to your deeds; as long as you persist, He—Exalted is He—continues to reward you for them.

The “weariness” mentioned in the outward wording of the hadith is not like our weariness, for ours stems from fatigue and laziness. Allah’s “weariness” is an attribute unique to Him, free from all imperfection; no fatigue or sluggishness ever befalls Him. He, the Exalted, says: “We indeed created the heavens and the earth and whatever lies between them in six days, and no weariness touched Us” (Qaf 38). Those mighty heavens, the earth, and everything between them Allah created in six days—Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday—yet “no weariness touched Us,” meaning We were not fatigued by creating them.