What is meant
Shahrur divides the Sunna into a messengerly Sunna and a prophetic Sunna. The messengerly Sunna is connected to the message, rituals, limits, and values, and is understood in light of the Book, whereas the prophetic Sunna concerns the Muhammadan narratives, the status of prophethood, and the questions and reports associated with his time and sphere.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: distinguishing
- Argument movement: divides the Sunna into two domains that differ in function and signification
- Central terms: messengerly Sunna, prophetic Sunna, message, narratives, rituals.
- Degree of centrality: foundational.
This atom is one of the most important keys to differentiation within the Sunna, because it prevents equating everything attributed to the Prophet with a single function. Through it, the difference becomes clear between what is connected to the message and what is connected to the prophetic context.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna
- The Sunna between Messengerhood and Prophethood
- the messengerly Sunna
- the prophetic Sunna
- Contemporary Sunna is understood through Qur’anic terms, not through inherited sanctification
Basis
- Supporting text: “The messengerly Sunna: what is connected to the message, rituals, limits, and values, and is understood in light of the Book.”
Basis location in the book
- Book: The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna.
- Location: in the first section of the book
- Type of basis: proximate evidence.
- Verification marker: the prophetic Sunna
- Reading note: this location is suitable as support because it presents the basis for distinguishing between the Sunna and the message and the prophetic Sunna, and it is close to the wording intended for documentation.
Degree of documentation
- Level: synthetically documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on more than one witness or on a clear composition of close expressions.
- Reason for classification: several witnesses confirm the division of the Sunna into messengerly and prophetic.
- Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary and is not treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted textually.
Its function in the book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction that Shahrur relies on in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial note
The atom draws an internal boundary within the concept of Sunna itself.