This entry brings together 2 instances of the use of this verse in the books of Muhammad Shahrur, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
Text of the verse as cited
And warn your nearest kinsfolk
Reader’s answer
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur employ the Qur’anic statement, “And warn your nearest kinsfolk,” in his discussion of loyalty?
Shahrur employs the verse as evidence for the existence of “clan loyalty” among the forms of innate and social loyalty in human beings. Here, he does not present it as a detailed ruling on warning or as a principle for ordering the duties of da‘wa; rather, he cites it in the context of showing that familial, clan, and tribal loyalty continue alongside acquired doctrinal loyalty, and that they may coincide or come into friction without either one negating the other.
Shahrur considers the verse among the “clearest pieces of evidence” on which he relies in his discussion of forms of loyalty. He specifically links the verse to clan loyalty, after mentioning a progression from familial loyalty to clan loyalty and then tribal loyalty. Shahrur understands clan loyalty as an innate loyalty with a social dimension, and places alongside it an acquired doctrinal loyalty; in this passage, he does not maintain that either one invalidates the other.
Citation and location
Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism — p. 172.
Limits of the reading
- The available evidence is from the book “Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism,” not from the source named in the current usage entry (“Islam and Humanity”). Therefore, this record does not establish the location of the verse in “Islam and Humanity.”
- The quotation does not explain the wording of the verse or its Qur’anic context, nor does it offer an independent ruling on the priority of warning one’s nearest relatives.
- The connection to clan loyalty derives from Shahrur’s conceptual construction in the quoted text; it should not therefore be turned into the verse’s sole necessary meaning.
Continue from here
Brief reading
For Shahrur, the verse serves as an example of the ordering of natural loyalties within the clan and family.
Themes
- Political and social
- Human and ethical
Related concepts
- Clan loyalty: 2
- Clan: 2
Its place in the network of concepts
It is connected to the organization of the primary circles of social belonging.
Role of the verse in the argument
- Example: 2
Instances of use
- Islam and Humanity: He cites it as an example of the level of clan loyalty in human society.
- Concept: clan loyalty
- Function of the verse here: example
- Textual evidence: “{ And warn your nearest kinsfolk } (The Poets 214).”
- Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 172: He makes it the starting point for ordering the natural priorities of loyalty within the family and clan.
- Concept: clan
- Function of the verse here: example
- Textual evidence: “{And warn your nearest kinsfolk} (The Poets 214).”
Related books
This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.