The Star 3–4

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This locus 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.

The Verse Text as Cited

Nor does he speak from [his own] desire. * It is nothing but a revelation revealed.

Reader’s Answer

The Question

How does Shahrur read God’s saying, “Nor does he speak from [his own] desire. * It is nothing but a revelation revealed,” and does he treat it as proof that all the Messenger’s words and actions are revelation?

No. In the available evidence, Shahrur rejects linking the two verses to the Messenger’s words and actions, and reads the oath “By the star when it descends” together with its response as a reference to the “Wise Revelation” sent down in portions, that is, divided into verses. He therefore regards the subject of “revelation” here as pertaining to the Revelation, rather than as an assertion that everything issued by the Messenger, in word or deed, was a revealed revelation.

Shahrur employs verses 1–4 of Surat al-Najm as a single unit: the oath “By the star when it descends” and the response to the oath, “Your companion has neither strayed nor erred; nor does he speak from [his own] desire. It is nothing but a revelation revealed.” Shahrur denies that these verses, in the reading presented here, have any connection to the Messenger’s words and actions; he asks: “What does this star have to do with the Messenger’s words and actions?” He then connects “the star when it descends” to the Wise Revelation. Shahrur interprets “the star” here as the gradual division of the Revelation, that is, as the separations between verses, and holds that removing the separator may alter the meaning. He consequently makes the specificity of this division a feature unique to the Wise Revelation.

Evidence and Location

Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism — p. 233.

Limits of the Reading

  • The evidence does not provide a complete presentation of Shahrur’s position on the authority of the Sunna or on all meanings of “revelation” in the Qur’an; it establishes only his mode of employing these verses in this particular passage.
  • The evidence cited from p. 44 does not establish the claim that Shahrur discussed al-Shafi’i’s inference from these verses or that he presented the concept of “constitutive infallibility,” because the available quotation from that page concerns reports about the cloud and the Seal of Prophethood and does not mention the verses of al-Najm.
  • The statement, “This star has no connection to the Messenger’s words and actions,” should not be turned into a comprehensive denial of any religious status for the Messenger’s words; what is established is the rejection of this inference from these verses within his reading of the gradual division of revelation.

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Brief Reading

Shahrur opposes the traditional interpretation that made the two verses grounds for the Prophet’s infallibility or for hadith-based revelation, restricting them to the revelation of the Qur’an.

Axes

  • Faith-based
  • Methodological
  • Infallibility: 2
  • Revelation: 2

Its Place in the Conceptual Network

It forms part of the critique of traditional conceptions of revelation and infallibility.

The Verse’s Role in the Argument

  • Critique of tradition: 2

Contexts of Use

  • The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna, p. 44: Shahrur uses it as the text on which al-Shafi’i relied to establish the Prophet’s constitutive infallibility, then opposes this understanding and restricts the two verses to the revelation of the Qur’an rather than to all the Messenger’s words and actions.
    • Concept: infallibility
    • Function of the verse here: critique of tradition
    • Textual evidence: “Al-Shafi’i and others rely … on God’s saying: {Nor does he speak from [his own] desire. * It is nothing but a revelation revealed} al-Najm 3, 4.”
    • Corresponding traditional reading: that the pronoun {it} refers to speech and that the two verses indicate the infallibility of everything issued by the Prophet.
  • Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 233: He uses them to discuss a traditional interpretation that made the two verses grounds for hadith-based revelation, then rejects this use and links revelation exclusively to the Wise Revelation.
    • Concept: revelation
    • Function of the verse here: critique of tradition
    • Textual evidence: “In light of their saying: revelation is of two kinds, Qur’anic revelation and hadith-based revelation, and in light of their interpretation of His—Exalted is He—saying: {Nor does he speak from [his own] desire (3). It is nothing but a revelation revealed} (al-Najm 3, 4).”
    • Corresponding traditional reading: revelation is of two kinds: Qur’anic revelation and hadith-based revelation

This page is presented within the general atlas-building methodology.

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas