This thematic thread 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.
The Verse Text as Cited
So let him not drive you both out of Paradise, lest you suffer
Reader’s Answer
Question
Where does Shahrur place Qur’an 20:117, what does “lest you suffer” mean in his presentation, and what function does it serve in his argument?
Shahrur places the verse within his depiction of humanity’s transition to conscious labor after leaving Paradise. He makes “lest you suffer” a marker of the beginning of labor and communication between two people, in a transitional stage preceding the full development of social and legal life.
Shahrur presents Qur’an 20:117 as indicating a qualitative shift toward conscious labor, linked in his account to the human being’s departure from their former condition. He interprets the phrase “lest you suffer” as the beginning of the phenomena of labor and communication between two people, while the use of sounds acquired through imitating animals and natural phenomena continued. In his argument, the verse serves to identify a transitional stage: the features of labor and communication begin in it, while social and legal life has not yet begun.
Citation and Location
the Book and the Qur’an — p. 259.
Limits of the Reading
- This is an account of Shahrur’s interpretation in the attached passage, not a statement of the meaning of the verse according to other exegetes.
- The citation does not establish that the verse itself explicitly states all the details of this stage; rather, Shahrur attributes them to it within his interpretive construction.
- The citation does not establish a specific relation to other verses except to the extent that Shahrur presents it in this passage.
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Brief Reading
He links it to the departure from Paradise as the beginning of hardship, labor, and social communication among human beings.
Themes
- Political and social
- Human and ethical
Related Concepts
- Social transition: 2
Its Place in the Conceptual Network
It situates the origin of social relations within the course of human transformation.
The Verse’s Role in the Argument
- Context: 1
Instances of Use
- the Book and the Qur’an, p. 259: He uses it to link the departure from Paradise to the beginning of hardship, labor, and social communication among human beings.
- Concept: social transition
- Function of the verse here: context
- Textual citation: “This transition is the transition of {So let him not drive you both out of Paradise, lest you suffer} (Ta-Ha 117).”
Related Books
This page is presented within the general atlas-building methodology.