For example, his ﷺ statement, “On land irrigated by rainfall the due is one-tenth” (1), and his statement, “No charity is payable on less than five awsuq” (2). Here the first text is qualified by the second, so zakat is not obligatory unless the crop reaches five awsuq.

Fourth category: the apparent conflict may be between two texts, each of which is, from one angle, more general than the other and, from another angle, more specific. This situation has three possible cases:

1 – If evidence exists that the generality of one of them must be restricted by the other, then it is restricted accordingly.

Example: the Almighty says, “Those among you who die leaving wives behind must instruct them to observe a waiting period of four months and ten days” (Al-Baqarah 2:234), and He also says, “For pregnant women, their term is until they deliver” (Al-Ṭalāq 65:4). The first verse is specific to widows yet, within that group, general with respect to whether they are pregnant or not; the second is specific to pregnant women yet, within that group, general with respect to whether they are widowed or not. Evidence shows that the first verse is to be specified by the second, for Sabīʿah al-Aslamiyyah gave birth only a few nights after her husband’s death and the Prophet ﷺ allowed her to remarry (3). Accordingly, the waiting period of a pregnant woman ends with delivery, whether she is a widow or not.