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
And there is no community but that a warner has passed among it.
Reader’s Answer
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur employ God’s saying, “And there is no community but that a warner has passed among it,” in his conception of the beginnings of human guidance?
Shahrur employs the verse to support a conception according to which divine guidance preceded the stage of human messengers, initially arriving through “warners,” which he interprets as angels sent to human communities. In his account, these warners were identifiable and known not to be human, and they presented an initial conception of God, monotheism, and worship. This is Shahrur’s particular interpretive use; the verse itself states that every community has had a warner pass among it, but it does not specify the nature of the warner, its angelic character, or its chronological position before the messengers.
The verse states that every community has had a warner pass among it. Shahrur reads “warner” in Fatir 24 as a sent angel, linking this to an early stage of guidance after what he calls the “second descent.”
Evidence and Location
Qur’anic Narratives, vol. 2 — p. 10.
Limits of the Reading
- The evidence establishes that Shahrur links the verse to angelic warners and to an early stage of guidance, but it does not provide independent proof from the verse itself that the term “warner” means angels.
- His statement should not be reduced to the categorical claim that guidance came “before human messengers”; the evidence mentions the continuation of warners with Noah, Hud, Abraham, Lot, and Salih, without independently distinguishing here between the function of warners and that of messengers at every stage.
- The connection to the date of Neanderthal extinction and the beginning of Homo sapiens is part of the historical framework Shahrur presents in the evidence, not a conclusion established by the text of Fatir 24 itself.
Continue from Here
Brief Reading
He makes it foundational to the idea that guidance came to human beings in the form of warners before human messengers.
Axes
- Narrative and historical
- Faith-related
Related Concepts
- Warner: 2
- Warners: 2
Its Place in the Conceptual Network
It is connected to his conception of the beginnings of religious reception in the earliest human societies.
The Verse’s Role in the Argument
- Foundational: 1
- Supportive: 1
Locations of Use
- Qur’anic Narratives, vol. 2, p. 10: He makes it foundational to the idea that guidance came to human beings in the form of warners before human messengers.
- Concept: the warner
- Function of the verse here: foundational
- Textual evidence: “{And there is no community but that a warner has passed among it} (Fatir 24)”
- the Book and the Qur’an, p. 268: He uses it to say that the earliest human societies received identifiable messengers/warners who taught them monotheism and rudimentary worship.
- Concept: warners
- Function of the verse here: supportive
- Textual evidence: “As for the angels, they were identifiable: human beings saw and heard them. He, glorified be He, called them the warners in His saying: {And there is no community but that a warner has passed among it}”
Related Books
This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.