Al-Nur 30

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This axis brings together 3 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

Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their private parts…

Reader’s Answer

Question

How does Muhammad Shahrur employ Qur’an 24:30 in his discussion of lowering the gaze, guarding the private parts, and clothing?

Shahrur employs the verse as an address to believers that brings together lowering the gaze and guarding the private parts. In his reading, “guarding the private parts” for men indicates the obligation to cover the private parts as the minimum required clothing, while leaving anything beyond this to personal taste, conventions, laws, and customs.

Shahrur reads the command to lower the gaze in the verse as concerning what causes people embarrassment, and links it to guarding the private parts. From “guarding the private parts,” Shahrur concludes that the minimum that men are required to cover is the private parts, and that additional clothing is determined not by the text, in his view, but by conventions, law, climate, and activity.

Citation and Location

Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism — p. 29.

Limits of the Reading

  • This is an account of Shahrur’s reading, not a statement of the agreed-upon meaning of the verse.
  • The specification of swimwear is an example Shahrur gives to clarify his conception of the minimum, and is not wording found in the verse.
  • The selected citation addresses clothing and the limits of covering, and does not support the claim concerning sexual inviolability or those whom the right hand possesses.

Continue From Here

Brief Reading

The verse is made the basis for guarding the private parts and lowering the gaze, as a general primary obligation before other specifications.

Axes

  • Human and ethical
  • Legislative
  • Methodological
  • Guarding the private parts: 2
  • Covering: 2
  • Lowering the gaze: 2

Its Place in the Network of Concepts

It is linked to the principle of covering and to the construction of moral obligation upon a shared basis.

The Verse’s Role in the Argument

  • Foundational: 2
  • Supporting: 1

Contexts of Use

  • Islam and Faith, p. 220: He makes it one of the texts concerning the general guarding of private parts for believers, as a prelude to distinguishing sexual inviolability through those whom the right hand possesses from confinement to marriage.
    • Concept: Guarding the private parts
    • Function of the verse here: Supporting
    • Textual citation: “- {Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their private parts…} (Al-Nur 30).”
  • Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 29: He uses it to determine the minimum of men’s clothing and connect it to guarding the private parts, making anything beyond it dependent on convention and taste.
    • Concept: Covering
    • Function of the verse here: Foundational
    • Textual citation: “* [Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze …] (Al-Nur 30). Here … He specifies for believers what they must cover of their bodies.”
  • Towards New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 288: He pairs it with Al-Nur 31 to establish the equivalence between men and women in the first obligation: lowering the gaze and guarding the private parts.
    • Concept: Lowering the gaze
    • Function of the verse here: Foundational
    • Textual citation: “He—exalted is He—said with respect to men: { Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze… } (Al-Nur 30).”

This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas