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the sunna of the prophet 103prove the existence of abrogated and abrogating ÈadÊths, from whichthey then deduced the existence of abrogated and abrogating versesin the Book. 29 Instead of wasting our time and exploring what is abrogatedand what not, it is more important for us today to commissionour parliaments and ask them to ‘release the restricted’ and to‘restrict the released’ in what Allah has permitted—and do this strictlyin accordance with the conditions of contemporary societies. Indoing so we would follow the sunna of the Prophet and emulate hisexample in the best possible and most authentic way.The Content of Prophetic \adÊth sThe prophetic sayings of MuÈammad (ß) can be divided into twocategories: words of wisdom and prophetic statements. 30A. Words of WisdomA reference to such words of wisdom can be found in the followingverses of the Book:God has sent down the scripture and wisdom to you, and taught youwhat you did not know… ( Al-Nis§" 4:113, AH)He gives wisdom to whoever He will. Whoever is given wisdom hastruly been much good, but only those with insight bear in mind.( Al-Baqara 2:269, AH)29In \anafÊ and M§likÊ law it is indeed encouraged, with specific reference to theProphet’s later permission, that men and women do visit the graves of their relatives.And—as MS rightly claims—for \anafÊ scholars such as the Syrian Wahbaal-ZuÈaylÊ, the existence of such abrogating decisions by the Prophet in the \adÊthdoes indeed prove the existence of abrogating verses in the Qur"an itself (see Wahbaal-ZuÈaylÊ, al-Fiqh al-isl§mÊ wa-#adillatuhu (Damascus: D§r al-Fikr, n.d.), vol. 2,679–10).30This is a novel distinction proposed by MS, but in traditional fiqh there is arecognition of the fact that not all of the sunna of the Prophet is legislative (tashrÊ#Ê).There is, for example, the category of ghayr tashrÊ#a (nonlegal) or al-af #§l al-jibilliyya,that is, habitual activities (lit. acts of natural temperament) that consist of theProphet’s personal likes and dislikes and his everyday manners that do not havebinding force. See Kamali, Hashim. Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, Cambridge:Islamic Text Society, 1991, 50–57). The latter category might be covered by MS’sclass 5, ‘personal statements’, whereas the former category (of legislative Sunna)might be covered by his class 3, ‘statements about legal injunctions’, and yet neitherof the two is seen to serve as a normative model for current legislation which is adecisive departure from traditional fiqh.