The unifying idea
This axis brings together the Qur’anic narratives as reports and the Muhammadan narratives as historical archiving to affirm that narratives are a field for reflection and for understanding events, not a doorway to legislation. Here, narration aims at awareness, whereas legislation concerns the regulation of conduct.
The propositions included in the axis
The axis’s support from the atoms
- the Qur’anic narratives are for admonition, not legislation
- distinguishing narratives from rulings resolves the problem
- the Muhammadan narratives are for reflection, not legislation
Reading method
Read the axis as a distinction between the report from which benefit is drawn and the ruling by which one is bound. The aim is not to deny the religious value of narratives, but to keep them in their natural sphere: reflection, not derivation of legislation.