Cognate conceptual relations are organized into larger families. The detailed pages remain for their specific proofs and angles; this entry, however, brings the unifying relation into focus before moving on to the partial formulations.
Its place in the atlas
- The unifying relation brings together more than one cognate formulation that has appeared in the relations pages.
- The partial formulations remain present because they carry distinct proofs or different angles.
- When there is a real difference between formulations, the partial formulation is read within its own group, not as a completely independent relation.
Relations that require a unifying reading
There are families in which the same idea recurs under more than one title. The most prominent are: the Qur’anic narratives and their function, Islam as a general horizon, the Wise Revelation and the fixity of the text and the mobility of understanding, the civil state, pluralism, and law, monism and its consequences, the messengerly and prophetic Sunna, and prohibition and the limits of state authority.
The existence of partial formulations is useful when they carry a specific proof, but the best entry point for reading is through the unifying family first.
The Mother of the Book: fixed determinate verses and the basis of the message
Three very close themes recur here: that the Mother of the Book consists of fixed determinate verses, that it is the basis of the message, and that it is the locus of commands and prohibitions. They describe a single conceptual field with different angles of presentation.
Formulations included in this relation
- The Mother of the Book consists of fixed rulings, and the detailed elaboration of the Book is a field of human ijtihad
- The Mother of the Book forms the basis of the Muhammadan message
- The Mother of the Book means the set of determinate verses
- The Mother of the Book is concerned with the commands and prohibitions related to human conduct
Monism: the opposite of pluralism and its outcome of injustice, despotism, and ruin
The titles converge around the outcomes of monism: backwardness, injustice, despotism, ruin, and the unjust village. The differences among them lie more in the angle of exposition than in the core idea.
Formulations included in this relation
- Monism is linked to backwardness and ruin
- Monism leads to despotism and ruin
- Monism produces injustice, despotism, and ruin
- Monism produces the unjust village
- Monism ends in injustice, despotism, and ruin historically and socially
- Monism is a divine attribute and is not suitable as a social model
Islam: a general human horizon prior to and broader than private faith
Here, formulations addressing precedence of the mission, human universality, and transcendence of narrow religious affiliation appear side by side. They are united by reading Islam as a general ethical horizon that is not confined to private belief.
Formulations included in this relation
- Islam is valid for every time and place
- Islam transcends narrow religious affiliation
- Islam predates the Muhammadan mission as a general human relationship with God, different from the private faith of Muhammadan followers
- Islam predates the Muhammadan mission
- Islam forms a human ethical framework broader than faith tied to following Muhammad and his rites
- Islam is re-founded from the Qur’an as a human ethical framework that distinguishes Islam from faith, separates religion from the authority of prohibition, and makes freedom, citizenship, and righteous action central criteria
- Islam is presented as a general human horizon, prior to and broader than the private faith associated with following Muhammad and his rites
The human being as a principal agent in history
These formulations affirm the presence of the human being as an agent in history, differing in degree of detail rather than in overall direction.
Formulations included in this relation
- The human being is an agent in history
- The human being is the active and principal factor in the movement of history
- The human being is the principal agent in evolving history
Prohibition: a divine authority not possessed by the state or by humans
These formulations bring together the restriction of prohibition to God or to messenger authority, and the denial that the modern state possesses this authority.
Formulations included in this relation
- Prohibition requires a new messianic authority
- Prohibition belongs to the messianic authority, not the modern state
- The state does not possess the power of prohibition
- God alone possesses the authority to declare lawful and unlawful
Pluralism as the basis of the civil state, civil society, and freedom
These formulations link pluralism with the civil state and civil society, and connect them to development and freedom. They are therefore read within a single political and social field.
Formulations included in this relation
- Pluralism establishes the state and civil society
- Pluralism is linked to development and freedom
- The civil state presupposes pluralism and the separation of powers
- The civil state rests on pluralism, freedom of opinion, and the separation of religion from the state
- The civil state is based on pluralism
- The civil state is based on constitutional freedom, pluralism, shura, and citizenship within a state of law
- Civil society is based on pluralism
the Wise Revelation: a living discourse with a fixed text and ever-renewed understanding
These titles revolve around the nature of the Wise Revelation: it is not a history book, it bears the quality of life, it requires a contemporary reading, and it is fixed in text while understanding remains dynamic; it offers knowledge rather than mere history.
Formulations included in this relation
- The Wise Revelation is not a history book
- The Wise Revelation was revealed in the tongue of Quraysh and unified signification, supporting the elevation of Arabic to a language of science and the critique of synonymy
- The Wise Revelation was revealed in the tongue of Quraysh
- The Wise Revelation is the only fixed revelation, while its understanding is dynamic
- The Wise Revelation bears the quality of life
- The Wise Revelation requires a direct contemporary reading because its understanding is renewed and is hindered by traditional stagnation
- The Wise Revelation offers transcendent knowledge, not mere history
Jihad is broader than fighting
The two titles meet in expanding the meaning of jihad, so that it is not confined to fighting and is not separate from establishing truth.
Formulations included in this relation
- Jihad is broader than fighting
- Jihad is presented as a revolutionary struggle to establish the order of truth
Freedom: the foundation of humanity and yet constrained by reality
These formulations present freedom as the basis of humanity, trace its manifestation in action and behavior, and note its limits in reality.
Formulations included in this relation
- Freedom is the foundation of humanity
- Freedom manifests as action and behavior and is constrained by multiple restraints
- Freedom has multiple restraints
The Muhammadan message: establishing equality, critiquing masculinity, and internal abrogation
These formulations relate to the field of the Muhammadan message from multiple angles: equality between male and female, critique of patriarchal norms, rebuilding social life, and the denial of internal abrogation.
Formulations included in this relation
- The Muhammadan message ended the age of masculinity
- The Muhammadan message establishes equality between male and female
- The Muhammadan message rebuilds society, family, and womanhood on the basis of equality, contract, and critique of patriarchal customs
- The family moves from biology to care, contract, and rights
- The Muhammadan message is not based on internal abrogation; abrogation occurred in earlier messages
- The Muhammadan message is not based on abrogation within its own text
Sunna: dividing it into messengerly and prophetic
The two titles address the same division of the Sunna according to status: messengerly Sunna and prophetic Sunna.
Formulations included in this relation
- The Sunna is divided according to status into messengerly Sunna and prophetic Sunna
- The Sunna is divided into messengerly Sunna and prophetic Sunna
Witnessing: a cognitive presence, not battlefield killing
These titles deny that witnessing is confined to being killed, and open its meaning to presence and knowledge.
Formulations included in this relation
Polytheism: fixing what is mutable and clinging to illusory permanence
The two titles converge in linking polytheism to fixing what is mutable and to clinging to an illusory permanence that rejects change.
Formulations included in this relation
- Polytheism is linked to illusory permanence and the rejection of change
- Polytheism means fixing what is changeable
The Qur’anic narratives: for moral reflection, knowledge, and extracting patterns, not for legislation
The formulations around the Qur’anic narratives gather around moral reflection, knowledge, and the extraction of patterns, while denying that narratives are to be turned into direct legislative material.
Formulations included in this relation
- The aim of Qur’anic narratives is reflection and the extraction of lessons
- A legal ruling is not derived from Qur’anic narratives
- Qur’anic narratives are not suitable as material for legislation
- Qur’anic narratives are not material for legislation
- Qur’anic narratives serve the function of moral lesson and knowledge, not legislation
- Qur’anic narratives extract historical patterns
- Qur’anic narratives present an evolutionary, cumulative vision of the formation of human beings and society
- Qur’anic narratives reveal the historical patterns associated with human action
- Qur’anic narratives reveal the laws of history
- Qur’anic narratives extend to earlier scriptural narratives
- Isra’iliyyat distort the Qur’anic narratives
- Analogical legal reasoning does not extend to Qur’anic narratives
The Qur’an: semantic differentiation, reference, and knowledge
These titles approach the Qur’an from closely related angles: objective laws, the consolidation of pluralism, affirmation of some of what came before, differentiation between terms, and harmony with modern science. They are unified by the field of Qur’anic reference and semantic differentiation.
Formulations included in this relation
- The Qur’an is concerned with objective laws and ontological truths
- The Qur’an consolidates pluralism and prevents monism
- The Qur’an affirms some of what is in the earlier scriptures
- The Qur’an distinguishes between الأب and الوالد, الأم and الوالدة, and الأبوين and الوالدين
- The Qur’an distinguishes between hearing, sight, and the heart as sources of knowledge
- The Qur’an is consistent with modern science in explaining the origin of the human being
- The Book differs from the Qur’an
The civil state: law, citizenship, and pluralism without prohibition
These formulations overlap in constructing the model of the civil state: pluralism, separation of powers, obedience to law, protection of opinion, and the absence of authority over prohibition.
Formulations included in this relation
- The civil state protects freedom of opinion
- The civil state presupposes pluralism and the separation of powers
- The civil state is based on pluralism, freedom of opinion, and the separation of religion from the state
- The civil state is based on pluralism
- The civil state is based on constitutional freedom, pluralism, shura, and citizenship within a state of law
- The civil state is based on obedience to the law
- The civil state regulates the public sphere through law and citizenship without possessing the authority of prohibition
Report and tidings: presence and witnessing versus the unseen
The two titles distinguish between report and tidings in terms of their relation to presence and witnessing, or to the unseen, within a single semantic distinction.
Formulations included in this relation
Interpretation: correspondence to reality, reason, and objective outcome
The two titles point to interpretation as correspondence with reality and reason, culminating in a truth or law whose understanding changes historically.