that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Leave me so long as I leave you.” He uttered this because some Companions, out of their eagerness for knowledge and to grasp the Sunnah, would pose questions about matters that were not originally unlawful, yet might become unlawful on account of their questioning, or about matters that were not obligatory, yet might become obligatory because of their questioning. Therefore the Prophet ﷺ instructed them to leave him—meaning, to refrain from asking so long as he had neither commanded nor forbidden—and to thank Allah for the ease He had granted them.
He then gave the reason, saying, “What ruined those before you was their excessive questioning and their disagreement with their prophets.” That is, the communities before us multiplied questions to their prophets, so the commandments became stringent for them just as they had made things stringent for themselves; afterward they even differed with their prophets. Had they, after asking and receiving the answer, fulfilled what was required of them, it would have sufficed—but instead they opposed their prophets.
To differ with someone is to oppose him. The Qur’an offers an example confirming the Prophet’s words: the Children of Israel disputed about a man who had been killed among them. Every tribe claimed another tribe had slain him; they argued and contended until they brought the matter before their prophet Moses (peace be upon him). He said to them, “Allah commands you to slaughter a cow” (al-Baqarah 2:67): sacrifice a cow, take a part of it, strike the corpse with it, and the murdered man will inform you who killed him.
They replied, “Are you making a mockery of us?”—meaning, “Are you laughing at us? What connection does a cow have with a murdered man, and how can the dead come back to life?” This reflected the arrogance and obstinacy of the Children of Israel and their preference for intellect over revelation. They relied on their fanciful reasoning rather than the revealed command; had they submitted to the text they would have been spared this ordeal. Moses said, “I seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant,” for whoever mocks people is an ignorant aggressor—and ignorance