JOURNAL OF ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES

ONLINE
Pavel Pavlovitch
fornicators, whereas the stoning verse defines the punishment of the
adulterers (fa-nusikha ḥadd
JAIS
u l-bikrayni bi-l-jald wa-nusikha [ḥadd u ] lthayyibayni
bi-mā kāna nazala fī l-Qurʾān min al-rajm thumma rufiʿa
rasm u -hu min al-kitāb wa-baqiya wujūb u -hu). 39
Al-Muḥāsibī’s above statement that flogging has abrogated the
punishment of the virgins is not free from ambiguity. Flogging, it must
be recalled, is justified by Qurʾān 24:2 and the ʿUbāda tradition alike.
Al-Muḥāsibī’s indeterminate expression in this case is not fortuitous.
Even though he considers the Qurʾān as the pre-eminent source for
defining the punishment for zinā, he cannot dispense with the sunna.
Unlike Muqātil and Abū ʿUbayd, who tacitly imply that in the case of
rajm the sunna abrogates the Qurʾān, al-Muḥāsibī professes that this is
an instance of naskh:
Fa-nasakha l-lāh u ḥadd a l-bikrayni min al-adhā wa-l-ḥabs i wa-l-jald i bi-ltabyīn
i bi-mā bayyana l-nabī, ṣalʿam, ʿan Allāh i ʿazza wa-jalla…
Then Allāh abrogated the punishment of the fornicators, which was
rebuke, confinement (i.e. Qurʾān 4:15–6) and flogging (i.e. Qurʾān
24:2), by elucidation; [that is], by what was elucidated by the Prophet [by
an inspiration] from Allāh the Almighty, the Exalted. 40
155
Note that al-Muḥāsibī assumes that both of Qurʾān 4:15–1 and 24:2
apply to virgins; that is, unlike Muqātil he does not assign to each verse a
different category of sexual offenders. This lack of differentiation
suggests that either al-Muḥāsibī was not acquainted with Muqātil’s more
advanced view or, more likely, that the respective part of Muqātil’s
commentary is a later addition.
Al-Muḥāsibī’s explanation of the relationship between the Qurʾān and
the sunna combines the notions of bayān (elucidation) and naskh
(abrogation) to describe the complex interplay between the two legal
sources in the issue of rajm. In so doing al-Muḥāsibī brings to mind al-
Shāfiʿī’s treatment of the same issue. Unlike al-Shāfiʿī, however, al-
Muḥāsibī does not emphasize the sovereignty of the Qurʾān and the
sunna. Nor does he speak of a single penalty for adultery.
Al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204/820) constructed the most elaborate early
chronology of the stoning verses and the attending sunnaic narratives.
His treatment of the origins of rajm is often blurred by equivocal
vocabulary. The problems stem from al-Shāfiʿī’s assumption that the
39 Al-Muḥāsibī, al-ʿAql, 455.
40 Ibid., 455.