This Book
“In this introduction, I do not intend to engage in a detailed discussion of the book’s various topics. Rather, my aim is to establish a key premise: Islam comprises two messages - a first message based on the branches of the Qur’an, and a second message that builds upon its fundamentals. The first message has already been elaborated, whereas the second awaits its elaboration. This will occur when its man comes and when its nation comes. And this coming is inevitable: ' This is a decree that your Lord has made inevitable.' ”
This Book
“It would be a grave mistake for anyone to assume that the Islamic Sharia of the seventh century, with all its details, is entirely suitable for application in the twentieth century. This is because the difference between seventh-century society and twentieth-century society is beyond comparison, and the knower (al-ʿārif) has no need to elaborate on it in detail; it speaks for itself.
Thus, we are faced with one of two possibilities: Either Islam, as conveyed by the infallible (the Prophet) and contained between the covers of the Qur’an, is capable of encompassing the potential of twentieth-century society and guiding it in the fields of legislation and ethics; or its capacity has been exhausted, having stopped at organizing seventh-century society and those similar societies that followed. In that case, twentieth-century humanity would have to abandon it and seek solutions to its problems in other philosophies, and this is something no Muslim would ever accept. Nevertheless, Muslims are unaware of the necessity of developing the Sharia.”
This Book
“Muslims say that the Islamic Sharia is complete, and this is true. But its completeness lies in its ability to evolve, to absorb the energies of individual and social life, and to guide that life along the paths of continuous progress, no matter how much that individual and social life may attain in activity, vitality, and renewal.”
