booke

the sunna of the prophet 113A final word: all social legislation needs to be based on the knowledgewhich humans have derived from modern social, human, andnatural sciences. In order to gain such knowledge, human beingsneed to enjoy maximum freedom—the highest and most sacred goodon earth. Restrictive legislation, however, restricts human freedom.A healthy society can exist with less restrictive legislation. The reversesituation makes people not only less free but also mentally and physicallyill. With this in mind we have come to the decision to separatethe legislative aspects of the Book, where there is room for manoeuvringin order to be less restrictive, from the moral and ethical ideals,the ethical ideals of the al-furq§n or ‘the straight path’ ( al-ßir§ãal-mustaqÊm), where there is no room for manoeuvring. 4343MS argues against the Islamist tendency to define al-isl§m as law and to imposethe most draconian legislation by a literal understanding of the aÈk§m injunctions.Against that, he defines al-isl§m as ethics and introduces the theory of limits thatallows mitigations and a less punitive approach to law. A restrictive, literal, and evenpunitive approach is only allowed in the sphere of ethics, not in (formal) law.