purchases something and is asked (1) to pay its price has no right to say, “I will not pay it until Allah creates in me the act of paying or the ability (2) to do so.”
This is a principle upon which [Allah] has fashioned all people (3): Muslims and disbelievers alike, those who affirm divine decree and those who deny it. It never occurs to any of them to raise such an objection—not even to those who acknowledge divine decree. Since the falsity of this objection (4) is known from the self-evident principles (5) of reason, no one may invoke it as an argument against the Messenger.
Second: The Messenger (6) says to him, “I have come to warn you: if you do what I command you, you will be saved and prosper; if you do not, you will be punished.”
Thus, when the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—ascended al-Safā, he cried out, “Beware the morning raid!” (7) They answered him, and he said, “Tell me (8): if I informed you that an enemy was about to attack you at dawn, would you believe me?” They replied, “We have never known you to lie.” He said, “Then I am warning you of a severe punishment that lies ahead.” (9) He also said, “I am the naked warner.” (10)
(1) N and M read: “then he was asked [to pay].”
(2) Ayn and M read: “and the ability.”
(3) N, A, and B read: “upon which all people were fashioned.” The same wording occurs in M, but the word “all” is omitted.
(4) M alone reads: “the matter.”
(5) N, M, A, and B read: “the beginning.”
(6) B and A read: “the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”
(7) Ayn reads: “Yā sāhibāh” (“O companion!”).
(8) M alone reads: “Tell me, all of you.”
(9) This hadith is narrated from Ibn Abbās—may Allah be pleased with them both—with some variation in wording. See *Sahīh al-Bukhārī*, 6/111 (Book of *Tafsīr*, Sūrat al-Shu'arā'), 6/122 (Book of *Tafsīr*, Sūrat Saba'), and 6/179–180 (Book of *Tafsīr*, Sūrat Tabbat Yadā Abī Lahab wa Tabb); *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 5/121 (Book of *Tafsīr*, section on Sūrat Tabbat); and *al-Musnad*, al-Ma'ārif ed., 4/186–286.
(10) This hadith is narrated from Abū Mūsā al-Ash'arī—may Allah be pleased with him—in *Sahīh al-Bukhārī*, 8/101–102 (Book of Heart-Softening Traditions, chapter “Refraining from Sins”). It begins: “The likeness of me and the message with which Allah sent me is that of a man who came to a people and said, ‘I have seen the army with my own eyes. I am the naked warner, so flee! Flee!’…” The hadith also appears in *Sahīh al-Bukhārī*, 9/93 (Book of Holding Fast to the Quran and Sunnah, chapter “Following the Practices of Allah’s Messenger”), and *Sahīh Muslim*, 4/1788–1789 (Book of Virtues, chapter “The Prophet’s Compassion—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—for His Community”).