This locus brings together 2 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
And you do not will unless God wills
Reader’s Answer
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur employ God’s saying, “And you do not will unless God wills,” in understanding human freedom?
Shahrur reads the verse as linking human will to divine will, rather than as negating the human capacity to choose. For him, will is the freedom to make conscious decisions between negation and affirmation concerning known things, but it operates within a relation to divine will that he explains through the perfection of God’s knowledge and the relativity of human knowledge. Thus, in this usage, the verse establishes a human freedom conditioned by knowledge, rather than a freedom independent of divine knowledge.
Shahrur defines will as freedom and the possibility of negation and affirmation when making conscious decisions concerning known things. He employs the verse to demonstrate the connection of human will to divine will, explaining this by saying that God’s knowledge is complete while human knowledge is relative.
Evidence and Location
A Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation — p. 57.
Limits of the Reading
- The available evidence supports this usage from A Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation, p. 57, rather than from the cited reference to The Book and the Qur’an, p. 330; the text extracted from that reference does not include an interpretation of the verse.
- The claim that the verse concerns both “uprightness and deviation” is not established by the precise evidence available, and is therefore not attributed here to Shahrur.
- This is an account of Shahrur’s terminology and of the relation he posits between will and knowledge; it is not a comprehensive interpretation of the verse or a resolution of the question of determinism and free choice in the Islamic tradition.
Continue From Here
Brief Reading
It underpins the idea that human freedom exists within God’s will and the limits of knowledge and wisdom.
Axes
- Faith-related
- Methodological
Related Concepts
- Will: 3
Its Place in the Conceptual Network
It links human choice and divine will within a single conception.
The Verse’s Role in the Argument
- Support: 1
- Foundation: 1
Instances of Use
- The Book and the Qur’an, p. 330: He uses it to say that God’s will encompasses both uprightness and deviation, while practical choice remains with the human being.
- Concept: will
- Function of the verse here: support
- Textual evidence: “{And you do not will unless God wills…} (The Human Being 30).”
- A Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation, p. 57: He makes the verse a basis for linking human freedom to divine will within the limits of knowledge and wisdom.
- Concept: will
- Function of the verse here: foundation
- Textual evidence: “There is a connection between divine will and human will … as God Most High says: {And you do not will unless God wills …} (The Human Being 30).”
Related Books
This page is presented within the general atlas-building methodology.