benefits.
8 – Using an impure substance in a way that does not allow its impurity to spread is unobjectionable, for he did not forbid them from such use when they informed him of it. The pronoun in his words, “it is unlawful,” refers to the sale, not to the use.
9 – Employing stratagems to transgress Allah’s prohibitions provokes His anger and His curse. One who commits a forbidden act while knowing it is forbidden is less culpable than one who reaches it through crafty ploys, because the former acknowledges that he has overstepped Allah’s limits and may repent and seek forgiveness, whereas the latter tries to deceive Allah. With his ruse he will persist in his sins, will not repent, and will remain veiled from Allah.
10 – Such legal dodges are the practice of the Jews, those who incurred wrath.
11 – Their age-old love of material gain drove them to trickery, the breaking of covenants, and the violation of prohibitions; they still wander blindly in their misguidance—may Allah scatter them.
Whenever the Prophet ﷺ mentioned the prohibition of these items to them, they would list the uses they had for the fat of carrion, hoping that those perceived benefits would exempt it from the forbidden list. He replied, “Do not sell it, for selling it is unlawful; those benefits do not render its sale permissible.” Yet he did not forbid them from making the uses they had described.
Out of compassion and sincere counsel for his community, he warned them against falling into what the Jews had fallen into—declaring the unlawful lawful by means of blatant, lowly stratagems—lest they imitate them. He therefore invoked a curse upon the Jews to impress upon his ummah the gravity of their crime in resorting to such tricks.
He explained that when Allah forbade the Jews to consume fat, they—seeking to deceive Allah and driven by material greed—melted down all the forbidden fat, sold it, and ate its price, claiming they had not sinned: they had not eaten the fat itself, only its price. This is nothing but playing games with Allah’s commands and prohibitions and treating His rulings and limits with disdain.
The same plague of contrivances and attempts to deceive Allah has afflicted us just as it afflicted them, confirming the Prophet’s ﷺ words: “You will most certainly follow the ways of those who came before you, step for step (1), so much so that if they were to enter a lizard’s hole, you would follow them into it.” Allah’s help is sought.