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the sunna of the prophet 71CHAPTER TWOTHE SUNNA OF THE PROPHET (‘)IntroductionIslamic jurists’ excessive fixation on the life of MuÈammad (ß) hasled to the unfortunate result that the sunna of the Prophet (ß) not onlybecame theoretically the second most authoritative source of Islamiclaw but practically also very often the primary source of legislation.When issuing their fatw§s—in particular on legal issues with farreachingsocial and political implications—Islamic jurists very oftenignored the rules of the Book or had them replaced by the sunna, whichover time became their ultimate—and often only—point of reference.By focusing on the sunna of the Prophet (ß) as a major sourceof Islamic legislation, our honourable scholars clearly oversteppedthe mark when they began to treat it as the principal and mostauthoritative source of truth, equal if not superior to the word ofGod in the Book. Their theologically most detestable step was toregard the Book as incomplete and in need of the elaborations andspecifications of the sunna, implying that a divine text needs to becompleted and confirmed by a human source—which is a truly blasphemousthought!In order to understand what went wrong in Islamic law and whywe ended up with a mindset focused on analogies that constantlyforces today’s Muslims to bring their behaviour in line with minutedetails of the sunna, leaving no room for innovative thinking, reform,or renewal, we need first to establish what in Allah’s Book enjoysuniversal validity (and is part of MuÈammad’s prophethood), andwhat was and has been of particular relevance (and is part ofMuÈammad’s messengerhood). For this discussion the universalnorms of human existence and the dialectics between social developmentand civilisational progress need to be fully considered.Contemporary Islamic discourse lacks philosophical depth. Theignorance of modern philosophical thinking is the root cause of thealmost primitive reflex by our honourable scholars to treat everyonewho is blessed with the tiniest spark of originality and creativity as