This axis 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
Therein is a flowing spring
Reader’s answer
Question
How does Shahrur employ the Qur’anic statement, “Therein is a flowing spring,” in discussing the meaning of “al-jāriyah”?
Shahrur employs the verse as evidence that the description “al-jāriyah” is connected to flowing; the verse describes a spring in Paradise whose water flows. On this basis, he objects to restricting the term “al-jāriyah” in human usage to a servant or female slave, and links it to movement and running in work or service.
The verse describes a spring in Paradise as “flowing,” meaning that its water flows. Shahrur adduces the verse, together with the verse “We carried you in the running vessel,” as evidence that the term “al-jāriyah” is connected to flowing, rather than being restricted to slaves or service. Shahrur presents the view that the description “al-jāriyah” may apply to girls who run swiftly in service or work, rather than to a specific social class.
Evidence and location
The State and Society — p. 263.
Limits of the reading
- The evidence establishes that Shahrur links “jāriyah” in this verse to the flowing of water, but it does not offer here an independent analysis of the context or rhetorical structure of the verse from al-Ghashiyah.
- The move from describing a flowing spring to determining the meaning of “jāriyah” when it describes women is a Shahrurian inference presented in the text, not a conclusion compelled by the verse alone.
- This evidence alone is insufficient to settle all the lexical, juristic, or historical usages of the term “jāriyah.”
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Brief reading
For Shahrur, the verse serves to define the meaning of the root as flowing and movement, rather than as indicating female slaves or service.
Axes
- Linguistic and semantic
Related concepts
- al-jāriyah: 2
Its place in the network of concepts
It is connected to the field of semantic differentiation that frees the term from its common meaning.
The verse’s role in the argument
- Distinction: 1
Instances of use
- The State and Society, p. 263: He cites it to affirm that the root indicates flowing and movement, not the meaning of a female slave or service.
- Concept: al-jāriyah
- Function of the verse here: Distinction
- Textual evidence: “And {Therein is a flowing spring} (al-Ghashiyah 12), as the word in the first verse refers to Noah’s ship, while the second describes a spring in Paradise.”
- Corresponding traditional reading: al-jāriyah meaning a servant or female slave
Related books
This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.