This page explains a conceptual relation between two poles within Shahrur’s thought, and how this relation functions in the construction of meaning.
Within a broader family
This relation falls within a field that places the human being as an influential pole in the movement of history, not merely a recipient of it. Its witness clarifies a degree of this presence, and the family brings together the formulations that describe the historical agency of the human being.
Meaning of the relation
This relation means that the human being is the force that brings about evolving history and drives it toward formation and transformation. History here is not a closed automatic course, but a domain in which human actions, choices, and gradual movement are realized; therefore, the principal role in making its course is ascribed to the human being.
The two poles of the relation
- First pole: the human being
- Relation: is the main actor in
- Second pole: evolving history
Evidence
- The Qur’anic Narrative, vol. 1 via The human being is the actor of evolving history
- Witness: the human being is the actor of evolving history, and the narratives reveal the laws of history, and the human being is an actor in history, and the emergence of the human being through evolutionary stages combine to establish that history is made by human freedom and gradual movement, not by rigid determinism.
Its effect on the knowledge map
This relation gains its importance because it places the human being at the center of historical understanding, and links human freedom to the transformation of history over time. In this way, it helps build a broader conception that sees the development of history as inseparable from human action, and that the narratives reveal its laws through the presence of the human being as its fundamental actor.