In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger ﷺ.
Chapter: The abrogating and the abrogated:
In this chapter Imam al-Shafi’i deals with the issue of abrogation (naskh) in the Islamic Shariah, and explains its categories, conditions, and rules.
The main points Imam al-Shafi’i addressed:
- Allah’s decree and predestination: Imam al-Shafi’i explains that Allah created creation for what had preceded in His knowledge of what He willed by creating them and for them, and that there is none to reverse His judgment, whether legislative or cosmic.
- Abrogation in the Qur’an: Imam al-Shafi’i affirms that Allah abrogated the recitation of some verses while their ruling remained, and that this does not imply any deficiency in the Qur’an; rather, it is part of the wisdom of Allah the Exalted. He gives examples of this:
- The verse of stoning: He points out that the verse of stoning was among what used to be recited, then its recitation was abrogated while its ruling remained established by the Sunnah. He mentions the statement of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him: “Were it not that people would say ‘Umar has added to the Book of Allah, I would have written it in.”
- The verses on suckling: He points to the verses on suckling whose recitation was abrogated while their ruling remained in the Sunnah (five known sucklings establish the prohibition of marriage).
- The hadith “If the son of Adam had a valley of gold”: He explains that it was among what used to be recited, then its recitation was abrogated and it became a sacred hadith (hadith qudsi).
- Abrogation clarified by the Sunnah: Imam al-Shafi’i clarifies that the Sunnah shows the abrogation of some verses, and that this does not contradict the saying of Allah the Exalted: “We do not abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten except that We bring forth [one] better than it or similar to it” (al-Baqarah 2:106), because being better or similar may be in wording, in meaning, or in both, and the abrogating element may be in the Sunnah rather than in the verse that came after it.
- Refuting the deniers of the Sunnah: Imam al-Shafi’i refutes those who deny the Sunnah, and explains that denying the Sunnah is disbelief or manifest misguidance, especially where the authentic Sunnah is established and the consensus of the Companions on it is established.
- Disagreement on abrogating the Qur’an by the Sunnah: Imam al-Shafi’i points to the scholars’ disagreement on whether the Qur’an can be abrogated by the Sunnah, and gives an example of this:
- The Treaty of al-Hudaybiyah and whether women were included in it: He points to the disagreement over whether women were included in the Treaty of al-Hudaybiyah, and whether that was abrogated by the saying of Allah the Exalted: “O you who have believed, when the believing women come to you as emigrants, examine [i.e., test] them. Allah is most knowing as to their faith. And if you know them to be believers, then do not return them to the disbelievers; they are not lawful [wives] for them, nor are they lawful [husbands] for them” (al-Mumtahanah 60:10).
- The Sunnah is not abrogated by consensus, analogy, or the view of a Companion: Imam al-Shafi’i affirms that the Sunnah is not abrogated by consensus, analogy, or the view of a Companion; and that the Book is higher than the Sunnah, so the Book may abrogate the Sunnah, but the Sunnah is abrogated only by the Sunnah or the Book. He explains that what is attributed to ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, of changing certain rulings is not abrogation; rather, it was ijtihad in binding people to something that had not been binding, in order to keep them from something unlawful.
- The necessity of following the Sunnah: Imam al-Shafi’i stresses the necessity of following the Sunnah, and that whoever abandons it has disobeyed Allah the Exalted and has no excuse for doing so. He mentions the hadith of Abu Rafi’: “Let me not find any one of you reclining on his couch, when a matter comes to him from my affairs, something I commanded or forbade, and he says: ‘We do not know; whatever we found in the Book of Allah, we followed.’” He also cites the hadith: “Indeed, I have been given the Qur’an and something like it along with it. Soon a man with a full stomach, reclining on his couch, will say: ‘Hold to this Qur’an; whatever you find in it lawful, treat as lawful, and whatever you find in it unlawful, treat as unlawful.’ Indeed, the meat of the domestic donkey is not lawful for you, nor any predatory animal with fangs.”
- The categories of the Sunnah (again, with more clarification): Imam al-Shafi’i again divides the Sunnah into categories:
- What agrees with the text of the Book: what the Messenger ﷺ clarified exactly as the Book stated it.
- What clarifies, on Allah’s behalf, the meaning of what He intended in the Book: clarifying the summary, qualifying the unrestricted, specifying the general, and clarifying what abrogates and what is abrogated.
- He points out that some scholars treat what the Messenger ﷺ established as Sunnah where there is no text of the Book as a third category; but in reality it falls under the second category, because it is a clarification of something summary in the Book, such as the saying of Allah the Exalted: “And whatever the Messenger has given you - take; and what he has forbidden you - refrain from” (al-Hashr 59:7).
He clarifies that the scholars’ disagreement is not over the necessity of following the Sunnah, but over the manner in which it came and how it is named.
Summary:
In this chapter Imam al-Shafi’i explains the importance of the Prophetic Sunnah and its standing in Islamic legislation, clarifies its categories and its relationship to the Noble Qur’an, and affirms the obligation of following it and the impermissibility of opposing it. He refutes those who deny the Sunnah and those who try to deny its authority or claim it is abrogated without sound evidence.
All parts of Summary of the Explanation of al-Shafi'i's al-Risala by Dr. Yasir Burhami