This page explains a conceptual relationship between two poles within Shahrur’s thought, and how this relationship functions in the construction of meaning.
Within a Broader Family
This formulation belongs to the field of the Mother of the Book as the domain of definitive verses and commands and prohibitions. Its specific witness highlights a particular angle, while the encompassing family shows its relation to the foundation of the message and the sphere of ijtihad.
The Meaning of the Relationship
The Mother of the Book represents the domain of fixed rulings in revelation, whereas the detail of the Book is the field that remains open to human ijtihad. Thus, the relationship here indicates that the divine original grants stability in the rule, while the detail remains broad enough for human engagement with reality and its changes.
The Two Poles of the Relationship
- First pole: the Mother of the Book
- Relationship: fixed rulings, and the detail of the Book
- Second pole: a field of human ijtihad
Evidence
- Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism through the fixed revelation produces fixed rulings and an ijtihad-based detail
- Witness: the fixed revelation produces fixed rulings and an ijtihad-based detail links this structure between the message as a field of fixed rulings and detail as a field of human ijtihad to say that legislation is not formed on a single level
Its Effect on the Knowledge Map
This relationship is important because it places within the conceptual map a fundamental distinction between what is understood as fixed in legislation and what is left to human judgment and ijtihad. In this way, it prevents the reduction of the message to a single level, and shows that the legislative structure combines a fixed reference point and an ijtihadic movement, which explains how revelation operates within intellectual and juridical life.