This entry belongs to Shahrur’s lexicon. In Shahrur’s thought, dhikr is one of the keys to distinguishing the names of the text: the Book, the Qur’an, the Furqan, the Mother of the Book, and dhikr.
Meaning in Shahrur
Dhikr is the Arabic linguistic form in which the Book appears and is recited among people. It is therefore connected to memorization, recitation, and the Arabic tongue, but it does not equal the Qur’an in all its aspects; for him, the Qur’an is the domain of truths, laws, and knowledge, whereas dhikr highlights the aspect of the preserved and recited Arabic form.
Its function in reading
- It establishes that the names of the text are not synonymous.
- It links the preservation of the text to the preservation of its Arabic form.
- It distinguishes between the aspect of devotion through recitation and the aspect of understanding and knowledge.
- It makes the question of the tongue part of the structure of revelation, not merely a historical circumstance.
Foundational links
- Dhikr is a renewed Arabic form of the Book
- The people of dhikr are the people of the Arabic tongue
- Dhikr and the Qur’an between worship and knowledge
- Al-Hijr 9
- Synonymy
Limits of the reading
Dhikr is not a separate chapter from the Book and the Qur’an, but a functional aspect within the network of terms that Shahrur constructs. It is therefore read with them, not in place of them.