booke

372chapter six6. MuÈammad’s (ß) message concluded the epoch of messengerhoodsand in this way Allah closed the gate of eternally valid legislation(in the form of absolute taboos) and opened the gate of human/historical legislation (in the form of prescription and proscription,permission and prohibition). This allows doctors to order their lungdisease patients not to smoke, and it allows a government to passa new law that prohibits smoking in public places and to order thepolice and the legal authorities to enforce it. Once the new law hasbeen accepted (by parliament), the individual citizen is obliged toobserve it, but he is free, on a personal level, to dislike the law andto air his discontent, provided that he does not try to impose hisopinions on others.How are we then expected to read the phrase ‘if you avoid the gravesins you are proscribed to do’ (in tajtaninå kab§"ir m§ tunhaun a #anhu)’ inverse 4:31? 35 To what extent does this verse reflect the choice ofhumans to obey or disobey God’s proscriptions? Firstly, we noticethe conditional conjunction ‘if’ (in) which, as in the following twoother verses, introduces a conditional subclause:If [in] a wicked person comes to you with any news, ascertain thetruth… ( Al-\ujur§t 49:6)Say: “If [in] I am astray, I only stray to the loss of my own soul: butif I receive guidance, it is because of the inspiration of my Lord tome…” ( Saba’ 34:50)In this capacity it shares its meaning ‘if’ or ‘when’ with the particleidh§ as in:When [idh§] comes the help of God, and victory. ( Al-Naßr 110:1)When [idh§] it is said to them: “Make not mischief on the earth,” theysay: “Why, we only want to make peace!” ( Al-Baqara 2:11)The difference between in and idh§ is, however, that while in statesa condition whose fulfilment is uncertain, idh§ states a condition thatis absolute and fulfillable. The use of the particle in for 4:31 tells usthat the text wants to stress uncertainty because it is not clear whether35Translation by MC, because all translators state ‘forbidden’ which does notreflect the subtle difference between Èar§m and manhÊy that MS wants to make; typicalis YA: ‘If you (but) eschew the most heinous of the things which you are forbidden todo, We shall expel out of you all the evil in you, and admit you to a gate of greathonour’ ( Al-Nis§" 4:31).