This axis 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
{There has certainly been for you an excellent example … We disbelieve in you, and enmity and hatred have arisen between us and you forever …}
Reader’s answer
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur employ Qur’an 60:4 in his discussion of freedom of belief and the relationship with disbelief?
Shahrur employs the verse to establish that faith requires the possibility of declaring a doctrinal position rejecting polytheism, while acknowledging the existence of the other party and its right to freedom of belief. In the accompanying excerpt, he does not read the verse as a command to violence; rather, he links the manner of interaction to whether it is conciliatory or adversarial debate, and makes the position of the disbelieving party determinative of whether the relationship is peaceful or non-peaceful.
Shahrur cites Al-Mumtahanah 4 in the context of freedom of belief and the Muslim’s need to believe in the existence of the “other party,” namely disbelief. He understands the declaration of dissociation in the verse as a free expression of a position against disbelief, not as independent evidence that the relationship with it is necessarily violent. According to Shahrur’s wording in the excerpt, interaction with disbelief may take the form of peaceful debate “in the best manner” and “good exhortation,” or it may be non-peaceful; he ties the determination of the case to the position of disbelief, not to faith alone.
Excerpt and location
The State and Society — p. 298.
Limits of the reading
- This presentation describes Shahrur’s use of the verse in the specified excerpt and does not establish that this is the only interpretation of the verse or its inherited interpretation.
- The expression “non-peaceful” occurs in the context of Shahrur’s general discussion of the relationship between faith and disbelief; the excerpt does not explain its forms or practical constraints.
- The occurrence of “enmity and hatred” in the verse should not be turned into a claim that Shahrur advocates violence, because the excerpt itself explicitly affirms the possibility of peaceful debate and makes the shift to non-peaceful interaction dependent on the position of the other party.
- The second accompanying excerpt is unrelated to the verse that is the subject of this page; therefore, no interpretive or thematic link to this verse is based on it.
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Brief reading
The verse presents a model of dissociation from polytheism while preserving the possibility of emulation in certain attitudes, without this implying violence.
Axes
- Faith-related
- Political and social
Related concepts
- Doctrinal dissociation: 2
- Emulation: 2
Its place in the network of concepts
It links doctrinal stance with the principle of exemplary conduct.
Role of the verse in the argument
- Support: 2
Contexts of use
- The State and Society, p. 298: He makes it a model of a firm doctrinal stance: declaring dissociation from polytheism without this necessarily implying violence.
- Concept: doctrinal dissociation
- Function of the verse here: support
- Textual excerpt: “And this has come in His—Exalted be He—verses: - {There has certainly been for you an excellent example in Abraham …} (Al-Mumtahanah 4)”
- Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 137: He includes Abraham alongside the Messenger in the model of exemplary conduct, to affirm that dissociation from the polytheists does not preclude certain forms of interaction with them, such as Abraham’s seeking forgiveness for his father.
- Concept: emulation
- Function of the verse here: support
- Textual excerpt: “Likewise was the path of Abraham—peace be upon him—before him: {There has certainly been for you an excellent example in Abraham}”
Related books
This page is presented within the general methodology for building the atlas.