This entry belongs to the Shahrur Glossary. It is one of the keys to Shahrur’s method of reading: the terms of the Revelation are not to be gathered under a single meaning when their semantic domains can be distinguished.
Meaning in Shahrur’s Thought
For Shahrur, synonymy is a methodological problem, not merely a linguistic issue. A mind that equates terms obscures the distinctions upon which the text constructs its concepts, and reproduces inherited meaning rather than building new knowledge. His rejection of synonymy is therefore connected to recitation, the Arabic tongue, reading the Qur’an through the Qur’an, and the fixity of the text and the movement of understanding.
Its Function in Reading
- It distinguishes between terms such as Islam and faith, prophet and messenger, tidings and report, and deed and act.
- It treats coordination between terms as evidence of difference, or of a particular-to-general relationship, rather than of lexical identity.
- It makes it possible to construct a precise Qur’anic terminology; if terms were synonymous, it would not be possible to distinguish the Book, the Qur’an, the Remembrance, and the Criterion.
- It prevents Qur’anic discourse from being treated as padding or poetic repetition.
- It turns language into an instrument of knowledge rather than verbal ornamentation.
- It confronts the reader with the question of the specific signification of every term within its context.
Related and Distinct Concepts
- It is related to poetry, because rejecting synonymy separates the Revelation from the logic of poetry and padding.
- It is related to interpretation, because interpretation requires terms to be defined precisely before the report is matched against reality and reason.
- It is related to tidings and report as a direct example of the rejection of synonymy.
- It is related to semantic distinctions, as a practical index of the pairs that Shahrur refuses to equate.
Foundational Links
- Rejection of synonymy among the terms of revelation
- Synonymy impedes the construction of knowledge
- The Arab mind suffers from three ailments
- Eloquence consists in conveying meaning with the fewest words
- Tidings differ from report
- The general deed and the particular act
Limits of the Reading
Rejecting synonymy does not mean isolating every term from its network. Rather, semantic distinction becomes part of the argument, and proximity between terms does not permit the elimination of their specific functions.