7- The report highlights the Prophet’s ﷺ tenderness and mercy.
8- It also teaches that a ruler or military commander should personally look into the welfare of his subjects.
9- By analogy with shaving the head, the jurists classed trimming the nails, applying perfume, and wearing sewn garments under the same heading of personal comfort while in iḥrām; the required payment is therefore called “the fidya for harm.”
10- Some narrations state that the Prophet ﷺ passed by Kaʿb, while others say that Kaʿb was brought before him. The scholars reconciled the two: the Prophet first encountered him in passing, then summoned him and had him carried over.
11- Shaving may precede the expiation or follow it, just as the expiation for an oath may be offered before or after the oath is broken.
12- The immediate reason for revealing the verse, “Whoever among you is ill… ” (Q 2:196), was the incident of Kaʿb ibn ʿUjrah. Yet the ruling is general, for the lesson lies in the universality of the wording, not the specificity of the occasion.

Clarifying the element of choice in the fidya:
The surface sense of the ḥadīth before us places the sheep first; if one cannot find a sheep, he may then choose between fasting and feeding the poor. The verse itself and the remaining narrations, however, indicate that the pilgrim is free to choose among all three options from the outset.
Among those narrations is what al-Bukhārī transmitted from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, from Kaʿb ibn ʿUjrah: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Perhaps your vermin have harmed you?” He replied, “Yes.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “Shave your head, and fast three days, or feed six needy people, or sacrifice one sheep.” This and similar texts state the choice explicitly.
The scholars harmonised the reports in several ways. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr held that mentioning the sheep first simply indicates its superiority, not an obligatory sequence. Al-Nawawī explained that the Prophet’s question about the sheep was only to tell him that, even if he owned one, he was still free to choose among the three; it was not meant to exclude the other options when a sheep is available.
Some scholars suggested that the Prophet ﷺ initially advised the sheep as a personal judgment (ijtihād), and that the verse granting unrestricted choice was revealed afterwards. This is supported by the report in Muslim from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maʿqil, from Kaʿb: “He asked, ‘Do you have a sheep?’ I said, ‘No,’ whereupon this verse was revealed.”
The ḥadīths on this matter have come down to us through two principal chains: one from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, from Kaʿb ibn ʿUjrah, and another from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maʿqil, also from Kaʿb.