This locus brings together 1 instance 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
Had he fabricated against Us some sayings, * We would have seized him by the right hand, * then We would have cut from him the aorta.
Reader’s answer
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur employ Al-Haqqah 44–46 in discussing the Messenger’s relationship to revelation and legislation?
Shahrur employs the verses to argue that the Messenger has no authority to attribute to God a statement of his own, nor to alter what was revealed to him through addition, omission, advancement, or postponement. This argument appears in his objection to attributing independent messengerly legislation to the Messenger when it has, in his formulation, no basis in the Book of God or divine ruling of command and prohibition.
Shahrur cites Al-Haqqah 44–46 as a threat that, in his reading, prevents the Messenger from fabricating statements about God and from altering the revealed revelation. He specifies the alteration he denies to the Messenger as addition, omission, advancement, or postponement on his own initiative. Shahrur connects this inference to his critique of al-Shafi‘i’s claim that the Messenger has Sunnas and legislation with no basis in the Book; he asks whether the Messenger, in his capacity as messenger, can bring something that has “no Book in it.”
Citation and location
The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna — p. 48.
Limits of the reading
- This presentation describes how Shahrur employs the verses in the documented passage; it does not itself determine the validity of this employment or the invalidity of the views he contests.
- The citation does not establish that Shahrur denies every explanatory or practical role of the Messenger; the quoted passage is specifically concerned with legislation that he describes as having no basis in the Book and with the capacity to alter revelation.
- This inference occurs in the context of a critique of al-Shafi‘i; it should therefore not be turned into a broader claim about the history of jurisprudence or all conceptions of the Sunna without additional evidence.
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Brief reading
Shahrur cites it as evidence that the Messenger cannot fabricate a statement of his own, or add to or subtract from revelation.
Axes
- Methodological
- Faith-related
Related concepts
- Warning: 2
Its place in the network of concepts
It functions to negate any overlap between revelation and human speech.
Role of the verse in the argument
- Critique of tradition: 1
Instances of use
- The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna, p. 48: He cites it as evidence of the impossibility that the Messenger could fabricate statements of his own or add to or subtract from revelation.
- Concept: Warning
- Function of the verse here: Critique of tradition
- Textual citation: “under the penalty of His saying, exalted be He: {Had he fabricated against Us some sayings, * We would have seized him by the right hand, * then We would have cut from him the aorta} Al-Haqqah 44–46”
Related books
- The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna
This page is presented within the general atlas-building methodology.