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402chapter sixshould free a believing slave, and pay compensation to the deceased’sfamily, unless they remit it freely. If the deceased belonged to a peopleat war with you, and he was a believer, the freeing of a believing slave(is enough). If he belonged to a people with whom you have treaty ofmutual alliance, compensation should be paid to his family, and abelieving slave be freed. For those who find this beyond their means,(is prescribed) a fast for two months running: by way of repentance toGod: for God has all knowledge and all wisdom. ( Al-Nis§" 4:92)We are now able to return to the problem of an apparent contradictionbetween 2:256 (prohibiting coercion) and 9:5 (permitting coercion).It can now be ruled out that either verse is abrogated becauseabrogation did not occur within MuÈammad’s (ß) messengerhood.The key to the solution lies in the distinction between MuÈammad’s(ß) prophethood and his messengerhood. It has been overlooked thatverse 9:5 (permitting coercion) is part of his prophethood (nubåwa),whereas verse 2:256 (prohibiting coercion) is part of his messengerhood(ris§la). This distinction has far-reaching consequences. Thus,whereas the verses of messengerhood have legal significance (insofaras we enjoy the power to exercise legislative ijtih§d about them), theverses of prophethood are not legislative at all but are purely informative.The verses of Sårat al-Tawba which give an account of themilitary expeditions of the early Muslim community—when killingwas a historic necessity—do not state universal laws but only ‘news’:khabar news for MuÈammad’s contemporaries and naba" news for uswho live centuries after the events took place. 70The Act of WitnessThe terms shah§da and shahÊd are derived from the root word sh-h-dwhich appears 160 times in the Book. Its first occurrence is in Såratal-Baqara (…and call your witnesses [shuhad§"akum] or helpers (ifthere are any) besides God, if your (doubts) are true, 2:23), and it ismentioned for the last time in Sårat al-Buråj (…and God is witness70Khabar news and naba" news are for MS two categories of MuÈammad’sprophet hood that do not contain legal rules or stories on the basis of which juristsshould formulate legal rules, e.g., about human warfare. Khabar news refer to eventsthat are or become perceptible to the eyes of those who are present at the time, thatis, contemporaries to those involved in such events, while naba" news refer to eventsthat can only be indirectly witnessed. In either case they are only ‘news’, not legalcommands. See chapter 2.