The second type is: The Sunnah explains and interprets the Glorious Qur'an in confirmation to Allah's Saying: "And We have also sent down to you (O Muhammad peace be upon him) the Dhikr [reminder and the advice (i.e. the Qur'ân)], that you may explain clearly to men what is sent down to them, and that they may give thought." (1)
The explanation of the Sunnah to the Glorious Qur'an is of many types as follows:
The first type is: Detailing, which means that the Qur'an contains general Ayahs and the Sunnah details its generality.
For example, Salah was mentioned in the Qur'an in general; Allah (may He be Glorified and Exalted) says: "And perform As-Salât (Iqâmat-as-Salât)," (2) but the Qur'an did not detail the number of its Rak`ahs, its due times, pillars, conditions and how to perform it, its Sunan, nullifications, and so on, therefore the Sunnah comes to explain and detail all these.
Likewise Zakah, fasting, Hajj, Jihad, transactions and so on.
The second type is: Specification of the Generalities (3)
The meaning is that the Ayahs of the Qur'an are general and the Sunnah comes to specify these generalities, such as:
1- The saying of Allah (may He be Glorified and Exalted): "Forbidden to you (for food) are: Al-Maytatah (the dead animals - cattle-beast not slaughtered), blood, the flesh of swine." (4) This is a general prohibition to every dead animal and every blood, so the Sunnah came to exclude two kinds of dead animals and two types of blood from this prohibition and makes them permissible to eat.
Ibn `Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: "Two dead things and two kinds of blood are made lawful for us. As for the dead things, they are whales and locusts. As for the two types of blood, they are the liver and the spleen." (5)
2- The saying of Allah (may He be Glorified and Exalted): "It is those who believe (in the Oneness of Allâh and worship none but Him Alone) and confuse not their belief with Zulm (wrong i.e. by worshipping others besides Allâh), for them (only) there is security and they are the guided." (6)
Some Companions understood from this Ayah that the meaning of oppression here is injustice or transgressing the proper limits. Therefore, they came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) complaining: Who amongst us does not wrong himself? Thereupon, the Prophet (peace be upon him) comforted them by saying that the meaning of injustice that was mentioned in the Ayah is: polytheism, thereby the Sunnah specified the general meaning of the Ayah.
`Alqamah narrated from `Abdullah Ibn Mas`ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: When the following Ayah was revealed: "It is those who believe (in the Oneness of Allâh and worship none but Him Alone) and confuse not their belief with Zulm (wrong i.e. by worshipping others besides Allâh)," the Companions of the Messenger of Allah wore greatly perturbed. They said: Who amongst us (is so fortunate) that he does not wrong himself? Upon this the Messenger of Allah (may peace and blessings be upon him) remarked: It does not mean that which you presume. It implies that which Luqman said to his son: "O my son! Join not in worship others with Allâh. Verily joining others in worship with Allâh is a great Zûlm (wrong) indeed." (7)
3- The saying of Allah (may He be Glorified and Exalted): "Allâh commands you as regards your children's (inheritance): to the male, a portion equal to that of two females. If (there are) only daughters, two or more, their share is two-thirds of the inheritance; if only one, her share is a half. For parents, a sixth share of inheritance to each if the deceased left children; if no children, and the parents are the (only) heirs, the mother has a third; if the deceased left brothers or (sisters), the mother has a sixth." (8)
This Ayah means that every father inherits from his child and each child inherits its father without specification until the Sunnah came to specify the inheritance of the Prophets by the Prophet's saying: "We do not give inheritance, but what we leave is a charity." (9)
The Sunnah also conditioned that heritors should not be killers by the Saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him): "A killer does not inherit." (10)
The Sunnah also specified the two types together by the saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him): "A believer does not inherit from an infidel and an infidel does not inherit from a believer." (11)
So, the meaning of the Ayah after specification is: The heirs of every deceased person shall inherit unless the inherited person is not a Prophet because Prophets do not give inheritance.
The second specification is: A heritor should not be the killer of the deceased because he does not inherit.
The third specification is: The heritor and deceased should have the same religion, otherwise there will be no inheritance because of the disagreement of religion.
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(1) Surat An-Nahl: 44 - 64.
(2) Surat Al Baqarah: 43.
(3) Generality is the word which includes all things and specification is specifying the general ruling to only some private rulings, See: Al Ahkam of Al Amidy (2/413).
(4) Surat of Al-Ma'idah: 3.
(5) The Hadith was reported by Ibn Majah in his Sunan in the book of foods, chapter on the liver and the spleen (2/110) and was reported by Ahmad in his Musnad (2/97).
(6) Surat Al An`am: 82.
(7) The Hadith was reported by Al Bukhari in his Sahih in the book of faith, chapter on a type of oppression beyond other type (1/15) and was reported by Muslim in his Sahih in the book of faith, chapter on the truthfulness and sincerity of faith (1/64).
(8) Surat An-Nisa': 11.
(9) The Hadith was reported by Al Bukhari in his Sahih in the book of rules of inheritance, chapter on "we do not give inheritance" (12/7) and was reported by Muslim in his Sahih in the book of Jihad, chapter on the saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him) "we do not give in inheritance" (2/81).
(10) The Hadith was reported by Imam Ahmad in his Musnad (1/49).
(11) The Hadith was reported by Al Bukhari in his Sahih in the book of Hajj, chapter on giving the houses of Makkah in inheritance (2/181) and was reported by Muslim in his Sahih in the book of rules of inheritance (2/2).
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