Aisha’s Derivation of Islamic Rulings

towards Islam, the injunctions concerning lawful and unlawful matters were revealed. If the command ‘Do not drink wine’ had been revealed at the beginning, people would have said, ‘We will never give up wine.’ And if the command ‘Do not commit adultery’ had been revealed at the beginning, people would have said, ‘We will never give up adultery.’ While I was still a young girl playing in Makkah, this Quranic verse was revealed: ‘Indeed, the Hour of Doom is their appointed time, and the Last Hour will be the most severe, and the most bitter.’ (54:46) Chapter al-Baqarah and chapter al-Nisa were revealed when I was with him.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 4993) What Aisha al-Siddiqah stated in this narration is not found in the Quran and Hadith in these exact words. However, through her continuous companionship with the Prophet of Islam, she came to understand that the Quranic injunctions were revealed according to the principle of gradualness. In other words, the process of building a Quran-based society cannot begin with the enforcement of legal penalties and laws. Its proper beginning is to change human thinking and create within people a readiness to accept divine commands. Only after such an intellectual