This axis brings together 1 instance 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
Then God sent a crow scratching in the earth, to show him how to conceal his brother’s body …
Reader’s Answer
Question
Where does the verse occur, what is the distinction that Shahrur derives from it, and what function does it serve in his argument?
The verse occurs in al-Ma’idah 31, within the account of Adam’s two sons. Shahrur takes it as evidence that human beings learned to bury the dead by observing and imitating a direct act, rather than through a linguistic designation that gives the act its mental signification. The verse serves his argument for rejecting the interpretation of “the names” as merely the names of things, or tongues and languages.
Shahrur reads al-Ma’idah 31 as evidence that human beings learned to bury the dead through direct, concrete instruction based on imitation and connected to hearing and sight. He employs this event to argue that human beings did not know how to bury the dead before it, making it part of his objection to interpreting the teaching of Adam the names as the imparting of the names of things or languages without prior mental significations.
Citation and Location
The Book and the Qur’an — p. 268.
Limits of the Reading
- The citation establishes a contrast between direct, concrete instruction and the conventionalization of the relation between sound and signified, but it does not provide an independent and complete definition of the concept of “abstract linguistic knowledge.”
- This passage alone does not establish a general theory of every form of imitation or every function of language.
- Describing the verse as occurring in the context of the account of Adam’s two sons identifies its Qur’anic location; it is not an interpretive claim beyond the citation.
Continue from Here
Brief Reading
He makes the story of the crow evidence that human beings learned to bury the dead through concrete imitation rather than abstract knowledge.
Axes
- Narrative and historical
- Human and ethical
Related Concepts
- Burial of the dead: 2
- Crow: 1
- Imitation: 1
Its Place in the Conceptual Network
It is connected to the beginnings of practical learning in human beings.
The Verse’s Role in the Argument
- Example: 1
Instances of Use
- The Book and the Qur’an, p. 268: He makes the story of the crow evidence that human beings learned to bury the dead through concrete imitation rather than abstract linguistic knowledge.
- Concept: Burial of the dead
- Function of the verse here: Example
- Textual citation: “Humanity’s practice of burying the dead … as evidenced by His, exalted be He, saying: {Then God sent a crow scratching in the earth …}”
Related Books
This page is presented within the general methodology for constructing the atlas.