Al-Zumar 42

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This axis brings together 2 loci where this verse is used in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

Text of the verse as cited

{God takes the souls at the time of their death, and those that have not died during their sleep. He retains those for which He has decreed death and releases the others until an appointed term. Indeed, in that are signs for people who reflect.}

Reader’s answer

Question

Where does the verse occur, how does Shahrur distinguish between the two aspects of the soul in it, and what function does it serve in his argument?

The verse occurs in Al-Zumar 42. The passage presents it when defining the soul from the psychological perspective as information and sensations that constitute the human ego, distinguishing it from the material aspect of the living being. Its function in this context is to support his claim that the soul, in this sense, is what is taken in death.

Shahrur distinguishes between a material aspect of the soul connected to the living being, breathing, and death, and a psychological aspect connected to the information and sensations constituting the human ego amid the biological transformation of cells. Shahrur cites Al-Zumar 42 to support the view that the soul in the psychological sense is what is taken in death.

Source passage and location

A Contemporary Reading Guide to the Wise Revelation — p. 60.

Limits of the reading

  • The passage does not state that death is a temporary stillness resembling sleep, nor does it establish that the verse is used here to prove a return to life.
  • The passage does not explicitly describe the soul as a “non-bodily dimension”; rather, it describes it as having a psychological aspect in contrast to a material aspect.
  • This passage does not establish a connection to the use attributed to the book “The State and Society,” p. 99, since it appears in “A Contemporary Reading Guide to the Wise Revelation,” p. 60.

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Brief reading

Shahrur adduces it as evidence that death is a state of being taken in death and stillness, and that the soul has a non-bodily dimension that is taken in death.

Axes

  • Faith-related
  • Linguistic and semantic
  • Death: 2
  • Soul: 2

Its place in the conceptual network

It is connected to his distinction between the meaning of death and the meaning of the soul in the human constitution.

Role of the verse in the argument

  • Support: 2

Places of use

  • The State and Society, p. 99: He adduces it as evidence that death is a state of temporary stillness resembling sleep, followed by return and life.
    • Concept: death
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual passage: “This is confirmed for us by His—Exalted be He—saying: {God takes the souls at the time of their death …}”
  • A Contemporary Reading Guide to the Wise Revelation, p. 60: He adduces it as evidence that the soul has an informational/psychological dimension that is taken in death, rather than merely dying.
    • Concept: soul
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual passage: “From the psychological perspective, it is the مجموع of information … and it is the soul that is taken in death, according to His saying—Exalted be He: {God takes the souls at the time of their death …} (Al-Zumar 42).”

This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas