The Prophetic Wisdom

the ‘complete shariah’ is being asked to follow the bearers of an ‘incomplete shariah.’ Implementation According to Circumstances The truth is that each one of the diversity of examples, found in the 23-year prophetic period, enjoys the position of a good example. Each example is perfect in itself. On the count of desirability, no one example is better than any other. The reason is that according to the established principles of the shariah, man is obligated to observe the precepts of religion in terms of the actual circumstances he finds himself in, rather than in terms of some supposed goal (The Quran, 2:286). That is to say that the objective of Islam is not to set some external target, like the establishment of the perfect Islamic system, as an absolute. According to this interpretation, the meaning of the verse about the ‘good example’ is that all the examples set by the life of the Prophet are equally worthy of being followed. That is, one has to study the life of the Prophet and follow to the letter that example which is applicable to his own particular set of circumstances. The Prophet had to face many kinds of situations. In this respect the Prophet’s life offers examples for a great variety of circumstances. Now God’s servants have to strive to find parallel examples and on finding guidance from his life, they must follow it whole-heartedly. The contradictory examples in the life of the Prophet are generally regarded as a matter of abrogation, for instance, when the verses on qital (to do battle) were revealed, the command to exercise patience and to practice avoidance was abrogated. But any absolute concept of abrogation is erroneous. Abrogation of one set of commands, opening the way to applying another set of commands, is relative to circumstances, and as such is only of a temporary nature. Whenever the circumstances change, the abrogated command may again become the more desirable one, in which case it will be observed just as it had been, previously. For instance, on the occasion of Badr (2 A.H.) the Prophet acted on the command of war instead of on the command of sabr (patience). He came out of Madinah and did battle with the idolaters at a place called Badr. But on several other occasions the Prophet adopted a patient attitude in response to the armed aggression of the idolaters. For instance, on the occasion of Ahzab (5 A.H.) in the face of the idolaters’ military challenge the Prophet stayed in Madinah and, by digging a long trench, successfully prevented the idolaters from advancing. Thus, by adopting this strategy, no actual fighting could take place. This clearly demonstrated an attitude of patience, which obviated qital or fighting. Similarly, for instance, the Prophet said his prayers secretly during the first half of his stay in Makkah. But when he had migrated to Madinah, he began saying his prayers publicly. The change of sunnah does not mean that now and for all time only the latter sunnah is applicable to the believers, and that praying secretly has been disallowed forever. Rather, according to circumstances, both the ways are equally desirable. When the circumstances are