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
Your women are a tilth for you; so come to your tilth as you wish, and put forth for yourselves, and be mindful of God …
Reader’s answer
Question
How does Shahrur read the Qur’anic statement, “Your women are a tilth for you; so come to your tilth as you wish,” and how does he relate it to the preceding verse on menstruation?
Shahrur distinguishes between the two verses: he takes the verse on menstruation as explaining the timing and locus of the sexual relationship, whereas he reads the verse “Your women are a tilth for you” differently, as unrelated to sex. He interprets “women” as newly emergent things and “tilth” as what is gathered and acquired of possessions. Thus, he understands “as you wish” as permitting the use of these things in time and place, while recalling mindfulness of God and the putting forward of good for the Hereafter.
Shahrur presents the preceding verse, al-Baqarah 222, as commanding abstention from sexual relations during menstruation, followed by approaching women after purification “from where God has commanded you.” He builds his reading of al-Baqarah 223 on the premise that the rules of the sexual relationship have already been set out in the preceding verse; he therefore denies, in his view, that “Your women are a tilth for you; so come to your tilth as you wish” is connected to the sexual relationship. Shahrur interprets “women” here as things that are created or newly emergent, and “tilth” as material things that people gather and acquire; he takes the address to encompass both males and females. He reads “as you wish” as indicating time and place in the use of those things, and connects the conclusion of the verse to a call for mindfulness of God and for not forgetting God’s rights and the Hereafter in dealing with worldly possessions.
Evidence and location
The Book and the Qur’an — p. 506.
Limits of the reading
- This page describes Shahrur’s interpretive construction as presented in the text; it does not elaborate on its linguistic or exegetical evaluation.
- The available evidence establishes this reading specifically in The Book and the Qur’an and does not establish that another locus presents the same argument.
Continue from here
Brief reading
Shahrur makes it a focal point for separating menstruation from the sexual relationship and for rereading women within the meaning of use and availability.
Axes
- Legal
- Linguistic and semantic
Related concepts
- Tilth: 2
- Pregnancy and tilth: 2
Its place in the network of concepts
It belongs to the network of legal interpretation connected with the meaning of tilth.
The verse’s role in the argument
- Foundation: 1
- Context: 1
Contexts of use
- The Book and the Qur’an, p. 506: He makes it central to his interpretation, distinguishing menstruation from the sexual relationship, and reads women here as newly emergent things that a person may use whenever they wish.
- Concept: tilth
- Function of the verse here: foundation
- Textual evidence: “As for His saying, {Your women are a tilth for you; so come to your tilth as you wish …} (al-Baqarah 223), it requires interpretation.”
- Corresponding traditional reading: a reading of the verse as concerning only the sexual relationship between spouses
- Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 62: He cites it as an example of treating a Companion’s statement as a revealed cause, not to establish a new ruling but to discuss the method of attributing occasions of revelation.
- Concept: pregnancy and tilth
- Function of the verse here: context
- Textual evidence: “They exemplified this with what Muslim transmitted from Jabir … and God revealed: {Your women are a tilth for you; so come to your tilth as you wish} (al-Baqarah 223).”
Related books
This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.