Gradualism in legislation (tadarruj)

For al-Sha'rawi, God spreads the rulings about habits over stages, so that a deeply rooted habit is not confronted with a sudden prohibition but is gently removed. Creed admits no stages. ¹²

He distinguishes the oneness of God and the refusal of association, which are decisive and admit no compromise, from matters bound by habit. The orders on the latter came in stages: a habit is not forced against what the self is used to, but is loosened step by step, as long as something leads to the change. ¹

He notes that the verse in al-Nahl that mentions intoxicant and good provision puts the intoxicant first. The statement in al-Baqara then comes as counsel rather than a ruling: wine has a great sin and some benefit, and its sin is greater than its benefit, leaving the person to weigh the alternatives. ³An-Nahl 67Al-Baqara 219

Then came the prohibition of approaching prayer while intoxicated. In al-Sha'rawi's reading this is one stage of the gentle path to prohibition: wine was set aside for the time in which a person meets his Lord, so that one comes to prayer with a sober mind. The explicit prohibition came after that. ⁴An-Nisa' 43Al-Ma'ida 90

He holds that God is merciful to those He legislates for, and therefore placed stages in matters of habit and routine. He compares this to a smoker who reduces a hundred cigarettes a day, so that the gap between one cigarette and the next widens, and part of the habit is broken. ²

Al-Sha'rawi offers this principle as his explanation of the wisdom of gradualism. No other jurists' views on the number or order of stages in the wine rulings are set out in these pages, so nothing is attributed to others here. No academic reading is given; one would need a named source (needs_source).