This is a lexical entry that gathers the technical meaning of this term in Shahrur across his various books and links together its multiple uses.
This entry belongs to Shahrur’s lexicon. For reading by theme, one may refer to Shahrur’s major themes and shared concepts.
Meaning in Shahrur
Faith is the affirming and practical commitment to the Muhammadan message after acknowledging God and the Last Day, and for Shahrur it is narrower than Islam and not identical to it. It is defined as a distinctive devotional, ritual, and ethical affiliation specific to the followers of Muhammad, and its reality appears in righteous action and commitment to its system.
Distinctions
- It does not coincide with Islam as a general value-based and human framework that transcends particular affiliation
- It is not reduced to mere belief in God and the Last Day, because that is its beginning, not its completion; its completion lies in ritual and ethical commitment tied to the Muhammadan message.
Places in his books
- Islam and the Human Being: Faith here differs from Islam; it is more closely linked to following Muhammad ﷺ and his rites than to being a general title for religion. This distinction is used to establish a reading that differentiates between Islam as a broad value framework and faith as a specific devotional/communal commitment
- Islam and Faith: Faith in Shahrur is narrower than Islam because it is linked to following the Muhammadan message. It begins with belief in God and the Last Day and then is completed within a ritual and ethical system specific to the followers of Muhammad.
What it adjoins and differs from
- Islam
- Islam as a human value framework broader than particular faith-based affiliation
- Human Islam is re-established Qur’anically as a system of values, freedom, and citizenship that transcends closed identity
- Islam is historically and conceptually prior to the specificity of the Muhammadan message
- Islam as a general human horizon broader than particular Muhammadan faith
- Islam transcends narrow affiliation
- The civil state regulates the public sphere by law, not by religious prohibition
- Righteous action embodies faith
- Understanding Islam requires beginning with the Qur’an through a recitational method that establishes the distinctness of terms
- The concepts of loyalty, disbelief, and polytheism are reread on a value-based, not identity-based, foundation
- Islam has three pillars
- General Islam and the value covenant constitute Shahrur’s definition of religion