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84chapter two3.of this world, but God looks to the Hereafter: And God is exalted inmight, wise. ( Al-Anf§l 8:67)The third error has occurred by inventing the notion of theProphet’s (ß) impeccability ( al-#ißma). This view can easily berejected by reading the following verse of Sårat Al-M§"ida:Messenger, proclaim everything that has been sent down to youfrom your Lord—if you do not, then you will not have communicatedthis message—and God will protect you from people. Goddoes not guide those who defy Him. ( Al-M§"ida 5:67, AH)The verse makes it clear that MuÈammad (ß) was not infallible as aprophet per se. His impeccability as a prophet is qualified by, a) hisinfallible delivery of the revealed text of al-dhikr al-ÈakÊm (because hetransmitted the message without adding or taking away a single letterand without letting any human being interfere in the process of transmission);and by, b) his moral perfection, in the sense that he did notviolate an absolute taboo of God or transgress a limit set by God.His moral perfection lied in the fact that he never ventured toperform ijtih§d in anything that God had explicitly forbidden. Instead,in everyday life he performed practical ijtih§ds within the parametersof what God had allowed ( al-Èal§l). His ijtih§ds were never fixed onceand for all and were never declared absolute as they changed anddeveloped according to historical circumstances. In other words, byhis sunna he impeccably specified what Allah had allowed in His Book.But such impeccability does not imply that the Prophet’s (ß) specificationsare absolute and to be enforced in other regions of this worldor in other sociohistorical contexts of human history.4.The fourth misunderstanding pertains to the common exaggerationof MuÈammad’s prophetic role:(We sent them) with clear proofs and scriptures; and We revealedto you the reminder, so that you may make clear [li-tubayyin] tomankind what has been revealed to them, and that, perchance,they may reflect. ( Al-NaÈl 16:44, MF)This verse of Sårat Al-NaÈl has led to much confusion amongMuslim commentators. This confusion produced the outrageous viewthat the Sunna is superior to the Qur"an, 12 in the sense that the12The terms Qur"an and Sunna (i.e., not in italics and with an initial capital letter)are used here in order to remain as close as possible to common usage in this