This thematic entry brings together 1 instance of this verse’s use in the works of Muhammad Shahrur, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
The text of the verse as cited
Indeed, when the water overflowed, We carried you in the vessel
Reader’s answer
Question
How does Shahrur read the term “al-jāriyah” in the Almighty’s saying: ﴿Indeed, when the water overflowed, We carried you in the vessel﴾?
Shahrur reads “al-jāriyah” here as Noah’s Ark, not as a girl, servant, or female slave. He employs the verse within his discussion of the term’s meanings in Qur’anic and linguistic usage, rejecting the restriction of “al-jāriyah” to service or slavery.
Shahrur explicitly states that “al-jāriyah” in the verse from al-Haqqah refers to Noah’s Ark: “as the term in the first verse refers to Noah’s Ark.” He uses this Qur’anic meaning to distinguish it from the meaning of “al-jāriyah” in some dictionaries and social usages associated with a girl or with service, and then concludes that the term is not confined to female servants or slaves.
Citation and location
The State and Society — p. 263.
Limits of the reading
- The citation is excerpted from a single page and suffices to establish that Shahrur identifies “al-jāriyah” with Noah’s Ark in al-Haqqah 11, but it is insufficient to support a broader theory about all uses of the root or about rulings on slavery.
- The occurrence of the term “al-jāriyah” in other verses does not by itself establish an additional interpretive connection; the link adopted here rests on Shahrur’s own explicit statement in the citation.
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Brief reading
Shahrur uses it to distinguish the meaning of al-jāriyah in the Qur’anic text from its juristic and social usage associated with service and slavery.
Themes
- Linguistic and semantic
- Political and social
Related concepts
- al-jāriyah: 2
Its place in the conceptual network
It belongs to the network of recalibrating the Qur’anic concept away from social accretions.
The verse’s role in the argument
- Distinction: 1
Contexts of use
- The State and Society, p. 263: He uses it to distinguish the Qur’anic meaning of al-jāriyah from its meaning in juristic and social usage associated with service and slavery.
- Concept: al-jāriyah
- Function of the verse here: distinction
- Textual citation: “The term ‘al-jāriyah’ occurs in the Wise Revelation with a different meaning … {Indeed, when the water overflowed, We carried you in the vessel} (al-Haqqah 11)”
- Corresponding traditional reading: al-jāriyah in the sense of a female servant or slave
Related books
This page is presented within the general atlas-building methodology.