All of these reports are carried upon the meaning that what is intended by them is recommendation and encouragement (istihbab wa nadb), not obligation and making something obligatory. No one may say that it is not possible to carry them upon recommendation because they contain wording of obligation. For although they do contain wording of obligation, what is intended by it is the emphasis of recommendation, since recommendation may sometimes be expressed using the wording of obligation. We have already clarified this in more than one place in this book. What indicates that what was intended by these reports was not obligation and making something obligatory, the abandonment of which would deserve punishment, is what he narrated (in the following hadith):
Commentary #6