This thematic entry brings together 1 instance of this verse’s use in the books of Muhammad Shahrur, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
Text of the Verse as Cited
He is God, other than whom there is no god: Knower of the unseen and the witnessed; He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Reader’s Answer
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur employ God’s saying, “He is God, other than whom there is no god: Knower of the unseen and the witnessed; He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,” in his reading of the divine attributes?
Shahrur employs the verse to establish that God’s knowledge encompasses not only the witnessed realm but also the unseen; on this basis, he explicitly states that there are no things or events unknown to God. He then links this description, in the same context, to the name “the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,” and proceeds to his particular claim that the realm of the unseen belongs to the “material realm of rahmaniyyat.” The direct evidence is Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 34, where the same verse appears after his statement regarding the comprehensiveness of God’s knowledge and before he cites other verses concerning fearing the Most Gracious in the unseen.
Shahrur maintains that God is unaware of none of the existing things or events that have occurred, citing Al-Hashr 22 as evidence that God is “Knower of the unseen and the witnessed.” In the same cited passage, Shahrur connects the description of God as “Knower of the unseen and the witnessed” with the conclusion of the verse, “He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,” and on this basis advances his claim that the realm of the unseen belongs to the “material realm of rahmaniyyat.”
Evidence and Location
Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism — p. 34.
Limits of the Reading
- The evidence establishes Shahrur’s mode of argumentation in this passage, but does not itself prove the correctness of his classification of the unseen within “material rahmaniyyat.”
- The excerpt does not explain the definition of “material rahmaniyyat” or the origins of this term; therefore, the broader context of the book should be consulted before presenting its definition as an established conclusion.
- This passage alone is insufficient to claim that the verse establishes Shahrur’s complete system of divine attributes; what is established is that he employs it in a specific argument concerning the comprehensiveness of knowledge and the unseen.
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Brief Reading
It is used to support the conjunction of knowledge of the unseen and the witnessed within his system of divine attributes.
Themes
- Faith
Related Concepts
- Knowledge of the unseen: 2
Its Place in the Conceptual Network
It supports a theological conception that brings together the unseen and the witnessed under the name of the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Role of the Verse in the Argument
- Support: 1
Instances of Use
- Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 34: He cites it as evidence for the conjunction of knowledge of the unseen and the witnessed with the name of the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, within his system of attributes.
- Concept: Knowledge of the unseen
- Function of the verse here: Support
- Textual evidence: “{He is God, other than whom there is no god: Knower of the unseen and the witnessed; He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful} (Al-Hashr 22)”
Related Books
This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.