Selected Quotations

Evolution of Shariah

“It is a big blunder to assume that Islamic Shariah in the seventh century with all its minutiae holds valid for implementation in the twentieth century. This is because the difference between the seventh century society and that of the twentieth century is incomparable. Any one who has such awareness needs not to expatiate on this fact as it speaks volumes for itself. Hence, we are left with two options. Either Islam, as brought to us by the impeccable Prophet in Quran, is capable to accommodate the potentialities of the twentieth century society and to undertake the guidance of such society in the fields of legislation and ethics. Or otherwise its capability ran out at the limitation of regulating the seventh century society and the likes succeeding societies, and hence the humanity of the twentieth century has to abandon Islam and seek solutions for its problems in other ideologies, a matter that is not upheld by any Moslem. However, Moslems are not aware of the exigent need to evolve Shariah. They assume that the problems encountered in the twentieth century can be accommodated and solved by the same legislation that accommodated and solved the problems of the seventh century. This is mere ignorance.
Moslems proclaim that Islamic Shariah is a perfect legislation. No doubt this is true. However, the perfection of Shariah lies in its capability to evolve and accommodate the potentialities of the social and individual life and to direct and guide this life towards consistent elevation, no matter how complex this social and individual life in terms of activity, vitality and rejuvenation.”
“The aforesaid evolution of Shariah, is achieved by switching over from one Quranic text to another Quranic text. That is to say, from a Quranic text that held valid during the seventh century time and hence made binding on people, to another Quranic text that considered superior at the time and hence superseded. The Almighty says, “whenever We supersede a verse or defer it, We bring in a better or equal verse, do you not know Allah is omnipotent at everything”. “ Whenever We supersede a verse”, means whenever we abrogate or lift the rule of a verse. “Or defer it”, means adjourn its rule. “We bring in a better”, means bring in a verse closer to the level of understanding of the then people and in conformity with the rule of time, more effectively than the superseded one. “Or equal verse’, means restitution of the same superseded verse as effective when its time falls due.
This means the superseded verses were invalidated due to the rule of time and deferred until its validity time falls due. When their validity time falls due they are restituted as effectively valid. On the other hand, the earlier valid verses in the seventh century will be invalidated. The rule of time means that the verses of subsidiaries held valid only for the seventh century, whilst the verses of originals will hold valid for the twentieth century. This is considered to be the rationale of supersedence, as it is not meant to be absolute abrogation but rather a carefully timed deferment.
In evolving Shariah we look into the rationale of the text. If the objective of the subsidiary verse that superseded the original verse in the seventh century was exhaustively realized and fell short of the new time i.e. the twentieth century, then it is high time for such verse to be superseded. In such case, it will be replaced by the revived original verse, which was deferred until it eventually holds valid and becomes the source of the new legislation in the twentieth century. This is the real meaning of evolving the legislation by switching over from a text, the objective of which was exhaustively realized, to another text deferred until its time falls due. Evolution, therefore, does neither mean leaping into vacant space, nor does it mean exerting a naïve opinion. It is the mere act of switching over from one Quranic text to another”.
Who is authorized to restitute the superseded verses?
As the Messenger of Allah passed away to Heaven, leaving the superseded and valid verses intact, is there any one who has got the authorization to undertake such fundamental and essential revision by restituting the superseded verses and superseding the valid ones? The reader may pose such a question in connection with the aforesaid argument. Truly, many of those objecting to our doctrine of the Second Message of Islam do not object to the essential substance of this doctrine. Furthermore, they do not pay much heed to the substance of our doctrine. They only object to the fact that a Message entails a Messenger and Prophecy as well, notwithstanding Prophecy has been finalized by an irrefutable clear–cut text. It is true that Prophecy has been finalized, but it is not true that Message has been finalized. The holy Quran says, “ Mohammed was never a father of any of your men, but the Messenger of Allah finalizing all Prophets, Allah is omniscient of everything”. It is well known that any Messenger is considered to be a Prophet, but it is not necessary that any Prophet is a Messenger. However, let us ask this question: what is Prophecy? The answer says that a Prophet is a man to whom Allah reveals divine knowledge and who communicates this knowledge on behalf of Allah. That is to say, divine knowledge is revealed to the Prophet through the intermediary of the angel, and he communicates this knowledge on behalf of Allah to the people, as per this revelation and as per the capability of the people to understand. By virtue of his rank as having received revelation from Allah, man becomes a Prophet, whilst by virtue of his rank as a communicator of this revelation to people, man becomes a Messenger. Nevertheless, this matter needs to be reconsidered in view of the rationale of finalizing the Prophecy, as people traditionally know it. This poses the question of why Prophecy has been finalized?
It is worth mentioning here that Prophecy has not been finalized until whatsoever the Heavens wanted to reveal to the people on earth, has already been revealed. This revelation descended from Heavens gradually, in full account of the rule of time, covering the length of time from Adam to Mohammed. This revelation is considered to be Quran, which, having been settled on earth, constitutes the reason for finalizing Prophecy. The rationale of this finalization of Prophecy lies in the fact that people now can attain divine knowledge at first hand from Allah without the intermediary of the archangel Gabriel. This sounds odd at first blush, but nevertheless, it is the truth as indicated by mere commonsense.
This is because Quran is the articulation of Allah, and whenever we read it Allah addresses us at first hand, but we are incapable to take in His articulation due to our own distraction form Him. The Almighty says about this, “ Never! Their hearts were tainted by what they were acquiring. Never! On that day they are concealed from their God”. Quran has been brought to help remove this taint by the methodology of its Shariah and path (Tareeqa) and their relative codes of decency, so as to understand from Allah whenever he talks to us via Quran. If any man attains such awareness, he is authorized to articulate the secrets of Quran to the extent of his understanding from Allah.

Who is the Messenger of the Second Message of Islam?

He is a man upon whom Allah has bestowed the understanding of Quran and conferred the authorization to articulate.

How do we recognize him?

Well! Jesus the Christ said to his disciples, “watch out for the pseudo–prophets”. They said, ”how do we recognize them”? He said, “by their fruit you will recognize them”.

Mahmoud Muhammad Taha
The Second Message of Islam
Translated by Saad Abunoura