This page explains a conceptual relationship between two terms within Shahrur’s thought, and how this relationship operates in the construction of meaning.
Within a broader family
This formula belongs to the field of semantic differentiation between khabar and naba’. Its witness indicates the dimension of presence or the unseen, and the encompassing family places the two terms in a single opposition between what is witnessed and what exceeds it.
The meaning of the relationship
The point is that khabar is not understood here as mere speech, but as an utterance connected to what was present or witnessed, or to what the narrator knows in detail. The relationship thus makes khabar depend on experience, direct observation, or immediate knowledge, not on conjecture or separation from the reality about which it is reported.
The two sides of the relationship
- First side: khabar
- Relationship: is linked
- Second side: to presence and witnessing
Evidence
- The Qur’anic Narrative, vol. 1 via khabar is linked to witnessing
- Witness: - Khabar: what is reported about a witnessed, present, or detailed matter known to the narrator.
Its effect in the knowledge map
This relationship acquires importance because it links the concept of khabar to its epistemic source, showing that this concept within the map does not stand alone, but is connected to presence and witnessing as a basis that gives it legitimacy and meaning. In this way, this link helps organize the concepts associated with transmission and knowledge, and distinguish what is reported about a witnessed or known reality from what is not.