This axis 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.
Text of the Verse as Cited
And a witness from her family testified: “If his shirt is torn from the front, then she has spoken the truth and he is among the liars.”
Reader’s Answer
Question
How does Shahrur employ God’s saying, “And a witness from her family testified,” to distinguish between the witness and the witness-present?
Shahrur employs the verse within his terminological definition of the “witness”: in his view, a witness is one who knows of an event without directly being present, then analyzes it and infers a conclusion from it through evidence and expertise. Thus, he reads “And a witness from her family testified” as an example of inference in the incident of the shirt, rather than as evidence that the witness was present at the incident itself.
Shahrur defines the “witness-present” as one who heard, saw, or attended the event, and distinguishes this from the “witness.” He defines the “witness” as one who learned of the event without being present, then analyzed it and inferred conclusions through his expertise.
The Witness and Its Source
Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism — p. 295.
Limits of the Reading
- The accompanying textual evidence establishes Shahrur’s general definition of the distinction between the “witness-present” and the “witness,” but it cuts off before the completion of his discussion and does not include an explicit reference to Joseph 26.
- The excerpt alone does not establish that Shahrur maintained, in his direct interpretation of the verse, that the witness inferred Joseph’s innocence without having been present at the incident.
- On the basis of this excerpt alone, the term “witness” in the verse does not entail certainty regarding all the details of the mechanism of inference or the identity of the witness.
Continue from Here
Brief Reading
For Shahrur, the verse establishes the idea that a witness is one who knows the event through evidence and expertise, rather than through direct presence.
Axes
- Methodological
- Linguistic and semantic
Related Concepts
- Witness: 2
Its Place in the Network of Concepts
It constructs a methodological definition of the witness’s place in inference.
Role of the Verse in the Argument
- Foundation: 1
Instances of Use
- Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 295: He uses it to establish that a witness is one who learned of the event without being present and then inferred it through evidence and expertise.
- Concept: witness
- Function of the verse here: foundation
- Textual evidence: “An example of this is His—Exalted is He—saying: {AND A WITNESS FROM HER FAMILY TESTIFIED …} (Joseph 26).”
Related Books
This page is presented within the general methodology for building the atlas.