standing; if you are unable, then seated; and if you are still unable, then on your side.”

Reflect on his statement, “When I command you to do something, carry out of it whatever you can.” A command differs from a prohibition: a command requires positive action and may prove burdensome, such that a person is unable to fulfil it. Hence the Prophet qualified it by saying, “do of it what you are able.” Even so, the command is further restricted by the condition that no real impediment exists; if a genuine obstacle is present, the matter falls under his words, “do of it what you are able.” For this reason the scholars state, “Nothing is obligatory when one is incapable, and nothing remains forbidden in a state of necessity.”

The proof-text here is the Prophet’s ﷺ saying, “Whatever I forbid you, avoid; and whatever I command you, do of it what you can.” This hadith belongs to the discussion of safeguarding the Sunnah and observing its etiquette.

As for what the Prophet ﷺ left unspoken, that is a concession, and therein lies Allah’s mercy. Matters are either commanded, forbidden, or left unaddressed; whatever Allah and His Messenger have kept silent about is pardoned—we are neither required to do it nor to avoid it. Allah alone grants success.

157 — The second narration: Abu Najih al-ʿIrbad b. Sariyah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ delivered an eloquent sermon that caused our hearts to tremble and our eyes to shed tears. We said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, it seems as though this is a farewell address, so give us counsel.’ He replied, ‘I counsel you to have taqwa (fear of Allah), and to hear and obey even if a slave from Abyssinia is placed in authority over you. Whoever among you lives long will witness much disagreement, so hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs; cling to it…’”}