and this does not contradict His saying afterward: "Indeed, those who disbelieve after their belief and then increase in disbelief, their repentance will never be accepted, and they are the ones astray. Indeed, those who disbelieve and die while they are disbelievers, none of them will be accepted even if they offer the earth full of gold as ransom. For them is a painful punishment, and they will have no helpers." This is because the intended meaning is: their repentance will not be accepted at the time of death, as Allāh said: "But repentance is not [accepted] of those who [continue to] do evil deeds until, when death comes to one of them, he says, 'Indeed, I have repented now,' nor of those who die while they are disbelievers. For them We have prepared a painful punishment." (Sūrat al-Nisāʾ, 18). This was stated by the ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr.
ولا ينافي ذلك قوله تعالى بعدها: (إن الذين كفروا بعد إيمانهم ثم ازدادوا كفراً لن تقبل توبتهم وأولئك هم الضالون. إن الذين كفروا وماتوا وهم كفار فلن تقبل من أحدهم ملء الأرض ذهبا ولو افتدى به أولئك لهم عذاب أليم وما لهم من ناصرين). ذلك؛ لأن المقصود: لن تقبل توبتهم عند الممات كما قال تعالى: (وليست التوبة للذين يعملون السيئات حتى إذا حضر أحدهم الموت قال إني تبت الآن ولا الذين يموتون وهم كفار أولئك أعتدنا لهم عذاباً أليماً) [النساء/١٨]. قاله الحافظ ابن كثير.
"If it were not that I would be overburdening my community, I would have made the use of the toothstick obligatory upon them as I have made ablution obligatory." It was recorded by Ibn Abī Shaybah in "al-Muṣannaf" (1/170): ʿUbaydah ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us, saying: al-Aʿmash narrated from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yasār from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā from some of the Companions of the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) who raised it [to the Prophet] and said... and he mentioned it. I say: This isnād is authentic, its men are trustworthy, the men of al-Bukhārī; except for ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yasār—who is al-Juhanī al-Kūfī—who was deemed trustworthy by al-Nasāʾī and Ibn Ḥibbān, and a group of trustworthy narrators reported from him. The anonymity of the Companion does not harm [the narration], and it is possible that he was Abū Hurayrah; otherwise, it is a corroborating narration: Ḥammād ibn Zayd narrates it from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sarrāj from Saʿīd ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Maqburī from Abū Hurayrah who said: The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said: "If it were not that I would be overburdening my community, I would have made the use of the toothstick obligatory with every ablution."
(لولا أن أشُقَّ على أمتي؛ لَفَرَضْتُ على أمتي السِّوَاكَ كما فَرَضْتُ عليهم الوضوءَ). أخرجه ابن أبي شيبة في "المصنف" (١/ ١٧٠): حدثنا عبيدة بن حميد قال: حدثنا الأعمش عن عبد الله بن يسار عن عبد الرحمن بن أبي ليلى عن بعض أصحاب النبي ﷺ رفعه قال ... فذكره. قلت: وهذا إسناد صحيح، رجاله ثقات رجال البخاري؛ غير عبد الله بن يسار- وهو الجهني الكوفي- وثقه النسائي وابن حبان، وروى عنه جمع من الثقات، وجهالة الصحابي لا تضر، ومن الممكن أن يكون أبا هريرة؛ وإلا فهو شاهد له: يرويه حماد بن زيد عن عبد الرحمن السراج عن سعيد بن أبي سعيد المقبري عن أبي هريرة قال: قال رسول الله ﷺ: "لولا أن أشق على أمتي لفرضت عليهم السواك مع كل وضوء".