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192chapter fourProhibited to you (for marriage) are: your mothers, daughters, sisters,father’s sisters, mother’s sisters, brother’s daughters, sister’s daughters,foster-mothers (who gave you suck), foster-sisters, your wives’ mothers,your step-daughters under your guardianship, born of your wives towhom you have gone in—no prohibition if you have not gone in—(those who have been) wives of your sons proceeding from your loins,and two sisters in wedlock at one and the same time, except for whatis past; for God is oft-forgiving, most merciful. ( Al-Nis§" 4:23)In these two verses of Sårat al-Nis§" Allah has issued a rule thatprovides a lower limit prohibiting certain marriage types. Nobody ispermitted to transgress this lower limit. Under no circumstances isan ijtih§d acceptable that, for whatever cultural or political demands,aims at allowing a Muslim-Believer to marry his mother, daughter,maternal or paternal aunt, and the like. However, since the lowerlimit stands alone in the text, one may add further restrictions. Forexample, if medical tests indicate that children from couples who arecousins show higher risks of developing genetic disorders, the legislatoris required to respond and to extend the list of prohibited marriagepartners to the children of maternal or paternal aunts (notethat this prohibition can never be an absolute taboo, because this isGod’s prerogative).Such an extension would not violate Allah’s limits, because, instipulating possible marital arrangements, He did not provide anupper limit. The only condition is that clear scientific proof must beprovided before any new legislation can be introduced. This meansthat a call for ijtih§d must be based on scientific evidence, and noton analogy. Analogies compare newly arising legal problems withprevious legal cases or with a consensus of jurists who lived in thepast, such as the salaf forefathers. Such analogical reasoning is, bydefinition, retrospective and regressive. It prevents Islamic legislationfrom being truly ÈanÊfic, that is, changeable, progressive, and adaptiveto new scientific discoveries. God has assured us that mujtahids who,in their endeavour to be as scientific and analytical as possible, makemistakes, still deserve Allah’s reward for their efforts, and thatmujtahids whose decisions are right will be given a double reward.B.The food taboos:Forbidden unto you (for food) are carrion and blood and swineflesh,and that which has been dedicated unto any other than Allah, and thestrangled, and the dead through beating, and the dead through falling