booke

the sunna of the prophet 89“O my father! To me has come [ j§"anÊ] knowledge which has notreached you [ ya"atik]; so follow me: I will guide you to a way that iseven and straight.” (Maryam 19:43)We notice here that the text uses first j§"anÊ in order to indicate thatAbraham, the speaker in this verse, has received divine knowledgefrom Allah, that is, from somewhere outside himself, whereas in thecase of his father, who has not received such knowledge, the verbya"atik is used, hence Abraham’s command to his father to followhim. As for the verb a-t-§ in general, the Book employs it only if itrefers to actions, never to speech acts or communication by words.If we apply these insights to 59:7, we can now explain why theverb a-t-§ (m§ at§kum), is used and not j-a-", or j§"akum. M§ at§kumrefers to knowledge that MuÈammad (ß) gained from human experiences,that is, from human origins, sources that lie within himself.The Book deliberately avoids the term j§"akum in the phrase ‘so takewhat the apostle assigns to you (m§ at§kum)’ because if it had usedj§"akum, it would mean that MuÈammad’s (ß) (human) knowledge isderived from an (outside) divine source—surely Allah, the Highlyexalted, is above what they ascribe to Him—or, at least, it wouldgive the impression that MuÈammad (ß) might even be the authorof the Book.In sum, ‘what the Apostle assigns to you’ is taken from withinMuÈammad (ß) as a human being, while the Book came down ( j§"a)from outside MuÈammad, both in shape and content. If we applythis more specifically to the phrase ‘so take what the apostle assignsto you’ and link it to the question of human legislation in the formof the sunna of the Prophet, we must then regard MuÈammad’sefforts to govern seventh-century Arabian society and to establish anew, centralised state on the Arabian Peninsula as his efforts and ascontingent to his historical context. Every human society is asked todo exactly that (‘take what the apostle assigns to you’), to governsociety and build a state according to the conditions of the presenttime.On a different note, we see how verse 59:7 employs the term n-h-yin the phrase ‘refrain from what he forbids you (nah§kum)’. This usageis deliberate because it avoids the term È-r-m. MuÈammad (ß) wasonly required to permit or prohibit ( ya"amur wa-yanh§) but never toabsolutely allow or forbid ( yuÈallil wa-yaÈram) since the latter is theprerogative of Allah alone. The difference is far-reaching: whereasthe area of permission/prohibition is part of human legislation and