booke

political islam 365government. We totally disagree with this abuse of the divine word,and we begin our own investigation with the study of the four binarypairs of terms whose complex meanings have been so carelesslytreated by the fuqah§":1. Èal§l ↔ Èar§m2. amr ↔ nahy3. sam§È ↔ man#4. Èasan ↔ qabÊÈDeplorably, the fuqah§" have not paid much attention to how thesepairs of terms differ from each other, with the disastrous result thatÈal§l is treated as synonymous to Èasan (or mustaÈsan), and sam§È (ormasmåÈ) as ‘what ought to be prescribed’ ( al-ma"mår bihi). Similarly,Èar§m is seen as just another word for qabÊÈ (or mustaqbiÈ) and man#(or mamnå#), meaning ‘what ought to be proscribed’ ( al-munhÊ #anhu).This careless conflation of terms made it only logical—by the powerof synonymity—to link ‘what ought to be prescribed’ with things thatare Èal§l, sam§È, and Èasan; and ‘what ought to be proscribed’ withthings that are Èar§m, man#, and qabÊÈ. 29Such indiscriminate use of terms, as we will show, is detrimentalto a correct understanding of Allah’s injunction ‘to prescribe whatis right and to proscribe what is wrong’. We will discuss each termof this injunction separately and then finally propose a differentunderstanding of it. Let us first quote the verses that contain theinjunction:Let there arise out of you a band of people inviting to all that is good,enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong 30 : They are the ones toattain felicity. ($l #Imr§n 3:104)29See chapters 2 and 3 where these terms are separately defined. According toMS, Èal§l and Èar§m refer to a category of divine commands that enjoy absolutevalidity and which are not subject to change, while sam§È, Èasan, man#, and qabÊÈ aredescriptions for rules that are subject to change in human legislation. This distinctionis not unknown in Islamic fiqh but the novelty lies in the fact that for MS there areonly thirteen muÈarram§t (absolute taboos) in total and that they belong exclusively tothe area of socio-ethical behaviour, while the entire field of what normally constitutesthe furå# al-fiqh (including family law, dress codes, penal law, etc.) belongs to thechangeable parts, and their rules should not be classified by the terms Èar§m orÈal§l.30AB: ‘enjoin the right and forbid the wrong’; MF: ‘bidding the right and forbiddingthe wrong’; AA: ‘bidding to honour, and forbidding dishonour’; MP: ‘enjoin