practical application; we examine them historically only to discern how the legislation evolved and the circumstances and occasions in which each ruling was revealed. This yields benefits of the highest order—benefits that must not be underestimated.

According to the majority of jurists, passages from the Qur’an and Sunnah may abrogate one another, for they stand on the same legislative plane: in truth, they all come from Allah Most High.

Apparent contradictions among texts
We must realise that the established scriptural texts never truly contradict one another. Whenever something only seems conflicting, the matter must be resolved through abrogation, specification, qualification, interpretation, or by preferring one of the two texts over the other.

When two sound texts appear to be at odds, three courses of action are open to us:

1. Reconciliation: we construe each text as applying to a different situation. Whenever such harmonisation is possible, we may not depart from it, for it allows all the revealed texts to remain operative.

2. If reconciliation proves impossible and we know which text came later, the later text is treated as abrogating the earlier.

3. If we cannot establish which text is earlier, we weigh the evidence and adopt the stronger of the two, proceeding according to the following hierarchy:
   • an explicit wording over an implicit one;
   • the apparent sense over an interpreted sense;
   • the stated meaning over the inferred meaning;
   • a text that affirms over one that merely negates;
   • and a text that moves the ruling away from the original presumption over one that leaves it in place.