Degree of Centrality: Centrality

242 pages

• Islam is a universal religion of values
• Islam predates the Muhammadan mission
• Islam is allegiance to human values
• Starting from the foundational text
• Tartil is the primary method of reading
• Freedom is the basis of human dignity
• Religion guides toward human values
• Righteous action embodies faith
• The Book establishes the fixed foundations
• God alone has the authority to permit and prohibit
• Citizenship is the highest allegiance in the civil state
• Citizenship is founded on law and equality
• Citizenship is allegiance to the homeland and the law
• Islam joins faith and righteous action
• Faith is a duty specific to believers
• Faith is specific to the Muhammadan message
• Definitive prohibition belongs to God alone
• Accountability concerns intended action
• Sin, evil deed, and error
• Messenger and prophet differ
• The third pillar is righteous action
• Salwa is not salat
• The Qur’an is an enduring miracle
• Some prohibitions are subject to ijtihad
• Distinguishing the witness from the martyr
• Distinguishing the martyr from the witness
• Those vested with authority: their legislation, not their persons, is obeyed
• A distorted relationship produces despotism
• Monism produces the unjust town
• Oneness is a divine, not a social, property
• Nations are defined by conduct and language
• Monistic systems lead to destruction
• The Muhammadan mission inaugurated the age of cities
• The Sacred House predates Abraham
• History moves toward pluralism
• Pluralism is a condition of development and freedom
• Freedom is a fundamental social phenomenon
• The civil state presupposes pluralism and separation of powers
• The civil state is founded on pluralism
• The civil state is founded on rights and freedoms
• Democracy mediates between the individual and society
• Messages regulate coexistence and rights
• Divine law and general guidelines
• A people includes nationality and nation
• Tyranny is the hallmark of monistic thought
• Injustice is a conscious, deliberate act
• Injustice means placing a thing outside its proper place
• Reason and knowledge turn speech into action
• Law regulates practice within the constitution
• Human society develops historically
• Civil society is founded on pluralism
• Society passes through three historical stages
• The moral reference is fixed and binding
• The prophet has no guardianship over people
• Freedom of opinion is part of the civil state
• Mecca is unsuitable as a civil capital
• Prohibition is an exclusively divine right
• Human legislation adds no prohibitions
• Legislation belongs to elected councils
• Freedom is the foundation of humanity
• Freedom is a condition of worship
• Freedom is a condition of human maneuverability
• Freedom is limited by multiple constraints
• The civil state is founded on plurality
• The state rests on three elements
• Religion and authority are distinct
• Qur’anic narratives encode historical laws
• The distinction of religion, authority, and state
• The human sovereignty of the Book transfers legislation to human beings
• No compulsion in religion is a negation of the category itself
• The messengerly Sunna is connected to the message
• The messengerly Sunna and the prophetic Sunna
• The contemporary Sunna is read through the Qur’an
• The prophetic Sunna is historical and ijtihadic
• The prophetic Sunna is historically conditioned
• The Sunna is divided into messengerly and prophetic
• The Sunna is not a second revelation
• The Sunna is an instrument of sectarian conflict
• Prophetic reports may be historical regulations
• The sayings of the Prophet and the Companions are historical documents
• Islam distinguishes between concepts
• The civil state protects rights
• Religion is an individual relationship with God
• The Muhammadan message opened the door to ijtihad
• The Arab mind suffers from three maladies
• Inherited jurisprudence does not conform to the Qur’an
• Jurisprudence is a historical human understanding
• The Qur’an is the highest reference
• Monistic society bears destruction within itself
• Monistic society bears its own annihilation
• Authoritarian society produces despotism
• The city is a symbol of plurality and freedom
• God’s essence lies beyond scientific proof
• The center of Islam is the Word of God
• Adam is not the first human being absolutely
• Adam is an intermediate stage in humanization
• Adam represents the beginning of conscious humanity
• Occasions of revelation do not explain the entire Qur’an
• Human beings are agents in history
• Human beings emerged through evolutionary stages
• The human being is the humanized bashar
• Human beings are the principal agents of history
• Human creation is evolutionary
• The jurist and the ruler dominate reality
• The Qur’an does not establish women’s inferiority
• The contemporary reading critiques inherited tradition
• Qur’anic narratives are not legislation
• Disobedience establishes freedom of choice
• The final criterion is righteous action
• Abrogation is an instrument of fragmentation
• Human beings participate in making history
• Interpretation is a gradual process of understanding
• Inherited exegesis obscures the text
• The text is fixed, while its content is renewed
• Salafi reading makes the past an absolute reference
• Qur’anic narratives record the development of messages
• Narrative distinguishes naba’ from khabar
• Cattle are not all animals
• Shahrur’s definition of cattle
• Noah was the first messenger from among human beings
• Qur’anic terms are keys to understanding
• The Mother of the Book is a general cosmic source
• The Mother of the Book is legislation
• Legal rulings have limits
• Islam is valid for every time
• Ijtihad between the two limits
• Interpretation is relative and historical
• Distinguishing inzal from tanzil
• Distinguishing prophethood from messengerhood
• Tanzil is an objective material transmission
• Paradise and Hell do not yet exist
• Limits are the foundation of Sharia
• Limits are the basis of legislation
• Qadar is existence outside consciousness
• The Qur’an is not heritage
• The Qur’an is Muhammad’s eternal miracle
• The limit-based reading of legislation
• The Book is a set of objective conditions
• Disbelief is a changing contextual concept
• Human knowledge is relative and evolving
• The historical method in understanding the text
• Naba’ differs from khabar
• Teaching the names is teaching attributes
• Distinguishing the domains of legislation, commandments, and rituals
• Validity of inference is insufficient for truth
• The science of abrogation is an illusion
• The law of internal conflict explains development and destruction
• Taking a life is permitted only with right
• Verses of elaboration explain prohibitions
• The verse on adultery concerns public indecency
• The Mother of the Book is the foundation of the Muhammadan message
• The Mother of the Book consists of the definitive verses
• Detailed rulings are open to practical ijtihad
• Ijtihad in elaborating the definitive verses
• Interpretation is specific to the ambiguous verses
• Interpretation pertains to the ambiguous verses
• Prohibition is an exclusively divine right
• Legislation changes as society changes
• Distinguishing the definitive from elaboration
• The forbidden is limited to what God has prohibited
• The Messenger conveys; he does not legislate
• Zakat is a distributive social obligation
• Associating partners with God is the first prohibition
• Understanding changes according to the problem
• The contemporary reading dismantles the mediating tradition
• The Book and the Qur’an are distinct
• The definitive does not admit ijtihad
• The definitive verses do not admit ijtihad
• Revelation does not contradict reason and reality
• Elaborating the definitive is the domain of ijtihad
• Killing children for fear of poverty is prohibited
• Verses on fighting are linked to a historical context
• The community is a bond of unified conduct
• Enjoining what is right is an invitation, not coercion
• Coercion is negated in religion
• Coercion contradicts the Word of God
• Wastefulness is exceeding the proper measure
• Prohibition belongs to God alone
• Mutual acquaintance is the divine purpose in making people nations and tribes
• Elaboration is the domain of human ijtihad
• Piety is the criterion of distinction
• Sovereignty means the limits of prohibitions
• Sovereignty is a slogan of coercive authority
• Freedom is the primary objective of Sharia
• Salafism is an entry point to violence
• The prophetic Sunna consists of two distinct types
• Critical reason is the basis of understanding
• Legitimate fighting serves freedom and justice
• Disbelief and polytheism are not absolute judgments
• Lineage is not a religious criterion
• The multiplicity of levels of belonging
• The fixity of the text and the dynamism of understanding
• Freedom of choice is fundamental in religion
• The cause of fighting differs from its objective
• There is no conflict between affiliations
• There is no worldly penalty for apostasy
• Occasions of revelation are not legislative causes
• The state’s task is confined to worldly affairs
• The pillars of Islam and the pillars of faith
• The Mother of the Book is closed to ijtihad