This theme brings together 2 instances in which this verse is used in the books of Muhammad Shahrur, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
The Text of the Verse as Cited
Say: Whether you conceal what is in your breasts or disclose it, God knows it. He knows what is in the heavens and what is on the earth, and God is powerful over all things.
Reader’s Answer
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur employ the Almighty’s statement, “Whether you conceal what is in your breasts or disclose it, God knows it,” in his interpretation of the breast and of God’s knowledge of what a person conceals within?
Shahrur uses the verse to connect “what is in the breasts” with human thought; he maintains that the breast, in his terminology, is the brain and the center of thinking. Based on the verse’s continuation with “God knows it,” he understands that God knows what a person is thinking at that very moment, continuously. This is Shahrur’s particular reading of the term “breasts” and of the form “knows”; it is not a conclusion established by the evidence as the verse’s sole interpretation.
Shahrur reads the phrase “what is in your breasts” in Al Imran 29 as referring to thoughts, because the “breast,” for him, is the brain and the center of thinking. From the Almighty’s statement “God knows it,” Shahrur understands that God knows human thought as soon as it occurs, and he describes this knowledge as continuous and instantaneous.
Evidence and Location
Islam and Faith — p. 248.
Limits of the Reading
- The evidence does not provide an independent linguistic or medical proof equating the “breast” with the brain; rather, it attributes this definition to an earlier explanation by Shahrur in the book the Book and the Qur’an.
- The evidence does not establish that this meaning is the exclusive interpretation of the verse; rather, it documents how Shahrur employs it within his interpretive framework.
- Describing divine knowledge as “instantaneous and always in motion” is Shahrur’s inference from the form “knows,” as he himself states; it is not a phrase found in the text of the verse itself.
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Brief Reading
The verse is used to ground a reading that makes the breast the locus of thoughts and thinking, and affirms God’s direct knowledge of them.
Themes
- Faith-related
- Linguistic and semantic
- Methodological
Related Concepts
- The breast: 2
- Divine knowledge: 2
Its Place in the Conceptual Network
It is connected to defining the relationship between the human interior and divine knowledge.
The Verse’s Role in the Argument
- Foundational: 2
Atlas Pages Referring to This Verse
These links gather the pages that rely on the verse or make it part of the argument within the atlas.
Related Atoms
Instances of Use
- Islam and Faith, pp. 248–249: He makes it the basis for his reading of the breast as the brain and the locus of thinking, and affirms that God knows thoughts immediately.
- Concept: the breast
- Function of the verse here: foundational
- Textual evidence: “- {Say: Whether you conceal what is in your breasts or disclose it, God knows it…} (Al Imran 29).”
- Islam and Faith, p. 249: He cites it to establish that what is in the breasts falls within the sphere of direct divine knowledge, and that disclosure and concealment concern the thoughts and ideas a person has.
- Concept: divine knowledge
- Function of the verse here: foundational
- Textual evidence: “We hold that we cannot understand it precisely except in the light of the Almighty’s statement: - {Say: Whether you conceal what is in your breasts or disclose it, God knows it…} (Al Imran 29).”
Related Books
This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.