This is a lexicographic entry that gathers the technical meaning of this term in Shahrur across his various books, and connects its multiple uses.
This entry belongs to the Shahrurian glossary. For thematic reading, see Shahrur’s major themes and shared concepts.
Meaning in Shahrur
The Wise Revelation is the Qur’anic text insofar as it is a discourse with ever-renewed significance, not confined to its verbal formulation alone, but determined in its understanding according to the cognitive problem the human being confronts. In this conception, it is the basis of a contemporary reading that engages the text directly and links its meaning to the movement of reality and knowledge.
Distinctions
- It does not correspond to the concept of the Mother of the Book and its detailing, because that concerns the construction of the overall project for understanding the Qur’an, religion, and legislation, not a description of the nature of the Revelation itself
- It is not equivalent to traditional interpretation or a rigid reading; what is meant is a renewed understanding of the text, not the reproduction of inherited meaning as it is.
Passages from his books
- The Mother of the Book and Its Detailing: In this source, the Wise Revelation is not a rigid text, but a living discourse that interacts with reality and whose significance changes according to the cognitive problem the human being confronts. This concept establishes the method of contemporary reading in Shahrur’s thought, where the text is understood directly without mediation by inherited tradition, and in a way that elevates language and knowledge to a new level
What is adjacent to it and what differs from it
- The Mother of the Book and Its Detailing presents a project for rebuilding the understanding of the Qur’an, religion, and legislation on contemporary foundations
- The rulings have a divine and human dimension
- The semantic concern with texts
- Prohibition in Islam → limited
- Detailing is based on a methodological distinction
- The Wise Revelation is a living, interactive text
- The Wise Revelation is a living text that calls for a contemporary reading that goes beyond traditional rigidity
- The Revelation marks a stage of knowledge, not eloquence alone
- Understanding changes according to the problematical issue
- Contemporary reading requires a new hermeneutic method that goes beyond traditional interpretation
- The Qurayshi tongue and the reclassification of the Book establish a precise semantic structure for the text
- The Qurayshi tongue and the unity of the text support a non-synonymous linguistic and cognitive project