—to what the practitioners of weight-measures followed on that day, and that their rulings are never to be changed or reversed to their opposites.

I say: From this it is clear that the Prophet ﷺ was the first to establish the principle of unifying weights and measures, directing the Muslims to refer in that matter to the people of these two favoured cities—Mecca the Honoured and Madinah the Luminous. Let anyone of sound mind reflect on this and look at the Muslims’ present state: the variety of their measures and weights in countless forms, all because they have abandoned this noble Prophetic directive. When some officials in certain Muslim Arab countries sensed the harm of this disparity, a few of them proposed to standardise weights, measures and even units of length by adopting the customs of the unbelievers! Alas! We were once leaders and guides of others through our knowledge and our adherence to our Sacred Law, yet today we have become followers and imitators—of whom? Of those who, until only recently, used to imitate us and take their sciences from us! But this night must inevitably fade away and the sun must rise once more. Already the first rays of dawn have appeared: Muslim nations have begun to depend upon themselves in every sphere of life after having been dependent on others, and perhaps they will proceed in that under the guidance of the Book of their Lord and the Sunnah of their Prophet. Allah has His ways with His creation.

166 – “Hiya laka ʿalā an tuḥsina ṣuḥbatahā” (She is yours on the condition that you treat her well).

Narrated by al-Ṭabarānī (1/176/1): Aḥmad ibn ʿAmr al-Bazzār told us; Zayd ibn Akhzam told us; ʿAbdullāh ibn Dāwūd told us, from Mūsā ibn Qays, from Hajar ibn Qays—who had lived through the pre-Islamic era—who said: ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him, sought Fāṭimah’s hand in marriage from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, whereupon he said the statement recorded above.