What Does Shahrur Say?
The cited passage states: “The essential rituals—prayer, almsgiving, fasting, and pilgrimage—are a domain of the Messengerly Sunna.” He also says that following the Messenger in his Messengerly Sunna consists in “the rulings of the Message contained in the Mother of the Book, and the human values, rituals, the theory of limits in legislation, and the principle of enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong that it contains.” He then mentions prayer and almsgiving specifically as “the rituals of prayer and almsgiving” in the context of obedience to the Messenger alone.
Atlas Explanation
This atom situates rituals within the term “Messengerly Sunna” in this book: they are not an incidental example outside that term, but a domain explicitly named by the text. The first passage names four rituals, while the second broadens the framework by including rituals within the Messengerly Sunna and gives prayer and almsgiving additional context.
Qualified Conclusion
This statement can be read as defining the domain of the Messengerly Sunna with respect to rituals, not as a complete explanation of the rulings of each ritual or the details of its performance.
Open Question and Limits of the Evidence
The passages presented alone do not clarify the criterion for including the practical details of each ritual within the Messengerly Sunna, nor do they by themselves establish that rituals are contrasted with “human customs” or “historical ijtihads.” For the broader context, see Muhammad Shahrur: The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna and The Sunna Between Messengerhood and Prophethood and The Messengerly Sunna and The contemporary Sunna is understood through Qur’anic vocabulary, not inherited sacralization.
The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna · The contemporary Sunna is understood through Qur’anic vocabulary, not inherited sacralization