Commentary
So he killed him. It was said: His killing was by cutting his throat. It was said: He struck his head against the wall. And from Sa'id ibn Jubair: He laid him down and then slaughtered him with a knife. If you say: Why was it said 'until when they both boarded the ship, he made a hole in it' without a conjunction? And 'until when they met a boy, he killed him' with a conjunction? I say: Making a hole in it is the consequence of the condition, and killing him is included in the condition, being conjoined to it. And the consequence is: 'Did you kill?' If you say: Why is there a difference between them? I say: Because making a hole in the ship did not follow the boarding, while the killing followed the meeting with the boy. And it was read: 'zakiyah' and 'zakiyyah', meaning pure from sins. This is either because she is pure in his view since he did not see her committing a sin, or because she is small and has not reached the age of accountability, meaning she did not kill a soul so that retribution is taken from her. And from Ibn Abbas that Najdah al-Haruri wrote to him: How was it permissible to kill him, while the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, prohibited killing children? He wrote to him: If you know about the condition of the children what the scholar of Moses knew, then you may kill. [Abu Ya'la reported something similar and said at the end: 'And that was for you.' And in another narration of his: 'I said, but you do not know.' So avoid them. Its origin is in Muslim without this context. And it begins: Najdah ibn Amir wrote to Ibn Abbas asking him about killing children - the hadith. And in it: 'You asked me about killing children, and the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, did not kill them except if he knew from them what the companion of Moses knew about the boy he killed.'] An act of disbelief, and it was read with two Dhammas, which is the act of disbelief. It was said that disbelief is less than the act, because killing one soul is easier than drowning the people of the ship. And it was said: Its meaning is that I came with something more disbelieved than the first, because that was a breach that could be remedied by patching, while this cannot be remedied. If you say: What is the meaning of the addition 'for you'? I say: It is an increase in the confrontation with reproach for rejecting the advice, and the branding of having little patience at the second encounter.
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