Primary and Secondary Commandments in the Quran; Criteria and Examples

Author

 A member of academic board of Razavi University of Islamic Sciences

Abstract

T




here are two kinds of religious commandments: one is a command that is established for a thing as an action regardless of the states and knowledge and ignorance of the obligatee towards it like necessity of praying, fasting, and prohibition of eating corpse. It is called "primary real commandment" too. The other is a command that is established for a thing given to the special states of the obligatee like necessity and emergency. It is called "secondary real command" as well. For example the primary command of eating corpse is prohibition but in the case of emergency it is permitted and the primary command is removed. Where the obligatee can’t act in accordance with the primary command for special reasons, it is constituted with the secondary one. Secondary command is regarded as a real command not superficial. Quran has stated primary 
command, undoubtedly it has a basic role in solving new problems of the society.
      

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