Āl ʿImrān 36

4 min read

This entry brings together 3 instances of the use of this verse in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

Text of the Verse as Cited

When she delivered her, she said, “My Lord, I have delivered a female …”

Reader’s Answer

Question

How does Muhammad Shahrur read God’s saying, “When she delivered her … and the male is not like the female,” in Āl ʿImrān 36?

Shahrur employs the verse in two textually connected contexts: he defines waḍʿ (“delivery”) as the fetus’s exit from the womb, and reads the phrase “the male is not like the female” as a preference for the female rather than an assertion of male superiority. For this reason, it is insufficient to describe the verse, in his view, as being about “equality”; his published formulation goes further, claiming a preference for the female in this context.

Shahrur holds that waḍʿ in the verse is the process by which the fetus exits the womb after pregnancy, and he cites the verse alongside other verses that use the term in this sense.

Evidence and Location

Islam and Faith — p. 181.

Limits of the Reading

  • The evidence establishes what Shahrur says about the verse, but does not by itself settle the exegetical or grammatical disagreement over the referent of its clauses.
  • The evidence does not establish that the verse affirms “equality” in the modern technical sense; his wording in the source is stronger than this, as he explicitly declares a preference for the female.
  • The meaning of waḍʿ here is specifically the fetus’s exit from the womb, and it should not be extended to other claims about the rules governing the sexes without further evidence.

Continue From Here

Brief Reading

For Shahrur, the verse serves as an example of using linguistic meaning to critique traditional interpretations, while highlighting the meaning of delivery and its connection to equality.

Axes

  • Linguistic and semantic
  • Political and social
  • Human and ethical
  • Delivery: 2
  • Readings: 2
  • Gender equality: 2
  • Creation and birth: 1

Place in the Conceptual Network

It is connected to testing readings and to reconsidering an expression apart from traditional rationalizations.

Role of the Verse in the Argument

  • Critique of tradition: 2
  • Example: 1

Occasions of Use

  • Islam and Faith, p. 181: he presents it as evidence that waḍʿ is the stage of bringing the newborn into the light after pregnancy.
    • Concept: delivery
    • Function of the verse here: example
    • Textual evidence: “{When she delivered her, she said, ‘My Lord, I have delivered a female …’} (Āl ʿImrān 36).”
  • Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 85: he uses it to show that differences in readings among exegetes and grammarians may be enlisted for rationalizations that serve the exegetical position rather than the original meaning.
    • Concept: readings
    • Function of the verse here: critique of tradition
    • Textual evidence: “We move to Āl ʿImrān 36 and find al-Rāzī noting that Abū Bakr read it … ‘waḍaʿat’ … while Ibn ʿAbbās and the others read it ‘waḍaʿtu’ …”
    • Corresponding traditional reading: the reading “waḍaʿat,” with a sukūn on the ʿayn and a ḍamma on the tāʾ, as opposed to one with a fatḥa on the ʿayn and a sukūn on the tāʾ
  • Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 242: he discusses the exegetes’ interpretation, rejects male preference over the female, and takes the verse as evidence for the opposite.
    • Concept: gender equality
    • Function of the verse here: critique of tradition
    • Textual evidence: “The problem is not who says {‘and the male is not like the female’} … All exegetes considered the male in the verse superior to the female, whereas the opposite is correct.”
    • Corresponding traditional reading: all exegetes considered the male in the verse superior to the female

This page is presented within the atlas’s general atlas-building methodology.

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas