al-Nisāʾ 4:160-162

Fa-bi-ẓulmin mina'lladhīna hādū ḥarramnā ʿalayhim ṭayyibātin uḥillat lahum wa bi-ṣaddihim ʿan sabīli'llāhi kathīrā · Wa akhdhihimu'l-ribā wa qad nuhū ʿanhu wa aklihim amwāla'l-nāsi bi'l-bāṭil … · Lākini'l-rāsikhūna fi'l-ʿilmi minhum wa'l-muʾminūna yuʾminūna bimā unzila ilayka wa mā unzila min qablik, wa'l-muqīmīna'ṣ-ṣalāta wa'l-muʾtūna'l-zakāta wa'l-muʾminūna bi'llāhi wa'l-yawmi'l-ākhir, ulāʾika sa-nuʾtīhim ajran ʿaẓīmā

"For the wrongdoing of those who became Jews, and for their barring many from the way of God, We forbade them good things that had been lawful for them. And for their taking usury, though they had been forbidden it, and for their consuming people's property by false means… But those among them who are deeply grounded in knowledge, and the believers, believe in what has been sent down to you and what was sent down before you. Those who keep up the prayer, who give the alms, who believe in God and the Last Day — to these We shall give a great reward."

The hundred and sixtieth and hundred and sixty-first verses also build a list of causes, and each item comes again with the particle bi-:

And the fourth item must be recorded: the construction is in exactly the same field as the sūra's twenty-ninth verse.

The same verb and the same qualification bi'l-bāṭil, at the two ends of the sūra. This is a countable fact.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the wording the two verses share: the act the sūra counts as a cause in the case of one group it had also forbidden to those it addresses. The measure, that is, is the same for both sides — and this is a textual ground for the method's rule against sweeping rulings.

Rāsikh — root ر-س-خ: to be firmly settled, to take root. The picture in the word is a thing settled so firmly that it will not shift from its place.

And the qualification minhum must be recorded separately: "of them". The distinction, that is, is made from within the community.

I bring this forward separately, because here the method's rule about attributes is being established by the text itself.

There is a grammatical detail in the verse, and it is dwelt on in the classical literature.

The items listed in the sentence are in the nominative (al-rāsikhūn, al-muʾminūn, al-muʾtūn, al-muʾminūn), but one item comes in the accusative: al-muqīmīna'ṣ-ṣalāta.

Different tendencies are transmitted in the classical literature of grammar on the explanation of this difference:

Both explanations are transmitted; I impose no preference.

And what must be recorded as a datum of the text is this: of the five items counted in the sentence only one carries this difference, and that item is prayer. This is a countable fact.