This lexical entry gathers the technical meaning of this term in Shahrur’s work across his different books, and links together its various uses.
This entry belongs to Shahrur’s glossary. For reading by theme, one may refer to Shahrur’s major themes and shared concepts.
The meaning in Shahrur
Shahrur uses it to refer to the representatives of legislative authority in the political system, not to executive rulers or to a sacred religious authority. He makes them the object of obedience in terms of commitment to law and the institutional order, not in terms of their persons or their possession of instruments of coercion.
Distinctions
- It differs from executive rulers, who possess implementation and coercion, not legislation
- It differs from any religious authority that claims sanctity; here, obedience to them is tied to law and institutional representation, not to infallibility or religious delegation.
Places in his books
- The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna: Muhammad Shahrur interprets them as the people of legislative authority, not executive rulers. Their importance in this source lies in that they determine the locus of obedience: obedience is to the law, not to the possessor of the instrument of coercion
- A Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation: Shahrur uses it to denote the representatives of legislative authority, not a sacred religious authority. Thus, obedience to them becomes tied to the legal system and institutional representation, not to the person himself.
What accompanies it and differs from it
- Uli al-Amr as legislative authority
- Prohibition and human legislation are two separate domains