The Prophets 30

3 min read

This axis brings together 1 instance of the use of this verse in the books of Muhammad Shahrur, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

Text of the verse as cited

{.. AND WE MADE FROM WATER EVERY LIVING THING..}

Reader’s answer

Question

How does Shahrur employ God’s saying, “And We made from water every living thing,” in his reading of the verse?

Shahrur employs the verse as an example of what he calls “direct interpretation”: that is, scientific understanding of sensible phenomena advances until it corresponds to the meaning of the text. Drawing on the verse, he maintains that water—or, in his wording, moisture—is a condition for the existence of every manifestation of life in the universe.

Shahrur cites The Prophets 30 in presenting the idea of “direct interpretation,” which he defines as the correspondence of what is apprehended from sensible phenomena with the text. He understands “And We made from water every living thing” to mean that life has no manifestation in the universe without water, and here explains water with the term “moisture.”

Citation and location

The Book and the Qur’an — p. 164.

Limits of the reading

  • The citation establishes the place of the verse in Shahrur’s argument concerning “direct interpretation”; it does not provide independent scientific proof of the statement’s universality across all forms of life or throughout the universe.
  • The sense of “water” as “moisture” appears in Shahrur’s wording within the citation; the excerpt does not set out detailed linguistic or exegetical evidence for this extension.
  • This citation alone is insufficient to derive a complete theory of Shahrur’s concerning the origin of life or the relationship between the text and the natural sciences.

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Brief reading

For Shahrur, the verse is read as stating that water is a condition for all life in the universe.

Axes

  • Linguistic and semantic
  • Methodological
  • Life and water: 2
  • Condition of life: 1

Its place in the network of concepts

It serves to link Qur’anic meaning to a general cosmological principle.

Role of the verse in the argument

  • Support: 1

Instances of use

  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 164: He cites it as evidence that water is a condition for all life in the universe.
    • Concept: life and water
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual citation: “For God Most High has said: {.. AND WE MADE FROM WATER EVERY LIVING THING..}”

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

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas