What Is Attributed to Shahrur
Shahrur says: “Speaking falsely about God means adding prohibitions to His prohibitions or declaring one of His prohibitions lawful.” He connects this to al-A‘raf 33 and al-Nahl 116, then maintains that “human ijtihad consists only in elaborating the fourteen prohibitions as stated in the Message, and in restricting what is lawful.”
Regarding prohibited foods, he cites al-An‘am 145 and al-An‘am 119, then says: “Here we note that He did not close the lower limit of prohibited foods as He closed it for prohibited marriages.”
The Atlas’s Explanation
The atlas distinguishes among three matters found in the text: prohibition attributed to God; adding prohibitions or declaring a prohibited matter lawful, as speaking falsely about God; and the sphere of ijtihad, which the source explicitly identifies as elaborating prohibitions and restricting what is lawful. This is a functional distinction among the source’s formulations, not a claim that its terms are synonymous.
Synthetic Inference
This structure entails that expanding the circle of prohibitions requires particular caution in the Shahrur reading presented here: for calling it a religious prohibition falls within what the source terms speaking falsely about God. This is an inference from the quoted text, not an independent list of prohibitions or of the powers of particular institutions.
Open Question
What practical boundaries separate restricting what is lawful through human ijtihad from religious prohibition? And how does Shahrur formulate the relation of this to law and the state? The evidence attached here does not directly answer these two questions; see the following relationship and claim pages.
Trace Paths
Lexicon and Verses
- Prohibition
- Prohibition in A Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation
- al-A‘raf 33
- al-An‘am 119
- al-An‘am 138
- al-An‘am 146
- al-Tawbah 29
- al-‘Ankabut 28
- al-Ma’idah 3
- al-Nahl 116
- al-Nisa’ 23
Conceptual Relationships
- Avoidance does not equal prohibition
- Prohibition requires a new messengerly authority
- The civil state, law, and the authority of prohibition
- The state does not possess the authority to prohibit
- Overview relationships
- God alone has the authority to declare lawful and prohibit
- Forbiddance does not equal prohibition
Related Claims in Books
- The state does not possess the authority to prohibit
- Wine, narcotics, avoidance, and intoxication
- God alone possesses the authority to declare lawful and prohibit
- Ethical Islam, freedom, and citizenship
- The civil state and law, not religious prohibition
- Definitive prohibition belongs to God
- Some prohibitions are subject to ijtihad
- Religious authority and the limits of revelation and ijtihad
- Divine prohibition and human ijtihad
- Multiplying prohibitions constricts religion
- Idols are not prohibited in themselves
- Humanly forbidden acts
- Humans regulate only what is permitted
- Prohibition is an exclusively divine right
- Human legislation does not add prohibitions
- Human legislation is changeable
- Sovereignty belongs to God alone
- Wine and gambling are forbidden, not prohibited
- The Shari‘a closes the door to human prohibition
- Legal prohibition differs from religious prohibition
- Forbidden matters are subject to ijtihad
- Forbiddance is not prohibition
- Divine prohibition and human law
- Sovereignty and the confinement of prohibition to revelation
- Wine, gambling, and exclusive prohibition
- Historical jurisprudence and civil law
- Qur’anic prohibitions, forbiddance, and ijtihad
- Religion, freedom, the civil state, and ijtihad
- Legislation and prohibition are attributes of God alone
- Legislation and divine prohibition
- The Muhammadan Message and the gate of ijtihad