Intended Meaning
The intended meaning is that human sunan and the legislations formulated by people are not fixed; rather, they change with changes in time and society They belong to history, not to the rank of absolute permanence as in the divine Sunna
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: historical
- Argument movement: it describes human sunan and historical legislation as changing with changes in society.
- Core terms: human Sunna, historical legislation, change.
- Degree of centrality: secondary.
This atom adds a historical dimension to the human Sunna, placing it within the field of social transformation rather than in the realm of absolute permanence, and it supports his distinction between what is permanent and what is contingent.
Reading Aids
- Muhammad Shahrur: The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna
- History, Development, and Sunan
- The contemporary Sunna is understood through Qur’anic vocabulary, not inherited sacralization
Basis
- Supporting text: “Human sunan and historical legislations are variable.”
Basis Location in the Book
- Book: The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna.
- Location: in the first section of the book
- Type of basis: close evidence.
- Verification marker: sunan change according to the circumstances of societies
- Reading note: this location is suitable as evidence because it explicitly states that sunan change with the changing circumstances of societies and their cognitive development.
Documentation Level
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Reading limits: the wording above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted textually.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is declarative; it establishes a result on which what follows in the course of the argument depends.
Related to
Editorial Note
It comes as a support for the atoms of the contemporary Sunna and its Qur’anic understanding.