booke

the sunna of the prophet 85Sunna overrides the authority of the Qur"an if the latter contradictsthe former, which basically amounted to an abrogation of the divinetext.The problem lies in a too literal understanding of verse 44 ofAl-NaÈl and the phrase ‘that you may make clear to mankind whathas been revealed to them’. It was thought that this refers to textualambiguities in the divine text which MuÈammad (ß) was meant toclarify, or to too generally formulated injunctions that he was sentto specify. In other words, the sunna of the Prophet (ß) was seen as apragmatic specification and perfect exemplification of Allah’s ratherambivalent legal injunctions. Legal experts had forthwith to use theinstrument of analogy in applying MuÈammad’s decisions in orderto find and establish their own. In the end, the ÈadÊths were believedto be the perfect filter through which one could explain an obscuredivine text, while the sunna became the absolute yardstick of the ‘real’legal intentions by the divine text. To read the Book without the filterof the ÈadÊths became increasingly difficult, resulting in the fatal thinkingthat the sunna overrides the Qur"an’s authority and that ‘theQur"an needs the sunna more than the sunna needs the Qur"an’. Andyet, ‘Allah, the Highly exalted, is above what they ascribe toHim’! 13Confusion occurred over the correct interpretation of the Arabicphrase li-tubayyin and its root words bay§n or tiby§n. The verb bayanawas often thought to mean ‘to explain clearly’ or ‘to make clear’ andwas identified as the main task of the sunna. The following verses ofthe Book, however, show that bayana rather denotes ‘to make evident’,or to bring out what is hidden (i.e., not yet discernible):Those who conceal the clear (signs) We have sent down, and the guidance,after We have made it (known) [bayyan§hu] 14 for the people in theBook—on them shall be God’s curse, and the curse of those entitledto curse. ( Al-Baqara 2:159)context. Strictly adhering to MS’s terminology, however, Qur"an should be renderedas the Book or al-tanzÊl al-ÈakÊm. See chapter 3.13This is a phrase taken from Sårat al-An#§m 6:100.14All translators understood bayyan§hu as ‘to make s.th. clear’, which does notnecessarily exclude the possibility that they saw this as synonymous with ‘to display’and ‘to uncover’ as MS intends it—MF: ‘after making them clear’; AH: ‘made themclear’; MP: ‘made it clear’; AhA: ‘have made clear’; AB: ‘make things clear’; AA:‘after we have shown them clearly’.