This is a lexical entry that gathers the technical meaning of this term in Shahrur across his various books, and links together its multiple usages.
This entry belongs to the Shahrur lexicon. For reading by theme, one may refer to Shahrur’s major themes and shared concepts.
The meaning in Shahrur
The Muhammadan message is the final, comprehensive message that rests on fixed, decisive principles of justice, freedom, equality, and mercy, while its rulings appear in changing details open to ijtihad so long as they remain within its foundation. It is a normative and religious standard that confronts coercion and rigidity, and makes renewal possible without overturning its constants.
Distinctions
- It is not the inherited fiqh, understood as a historical accumulation of rulings, even if it benefits from it in understanding and application
- Nor is it equivalent to the partial details or ritual practices alone, because these belong to the sphere of change and application, not to the fixed core of the message.
Passages from his books
- Umm al-Kitab and Its Elaboration: The Muhammadan message is presented here as final and universal, because its structure rests on fixed principles and changing details. This makes it suitable for renewed ijtihad within its limits, not for the stagnation of inherited fiqh
- Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism: In this source, the Muhammadan message is presented as a message of mercy and universality, whose basis is freedom, justice, and equality, not coercion or rigidity. Here it functions as a normative foundation with which the author confronts the historical readings he sees as breeding grounds for violence; thus it becomes the center of the argument against terrorism.
What is adjacent to it and different from it
- Inherited fiqh
- The verses of detail build the message’s rulings
- Umm al-Kitab is the foundation of the Muhammadan message
- Ijtihad pertains to the decisive principles
- Rational interpretation reconstructs the unseen and religion on the basis of freedom and knowledge
- Boundary-based legislation makes application variable within the constants of Umm al-Kitab
- The distinction between decisive principle and detail
- The distinction between decisive and ambiguous verses distributes ijtihad and interpretation methodologically
- Religion is a free relationship with God that distinguishes between the historical message and ethical commitment
- The Muhammadan message is bounded and universal
- Ritual practices belong to the sphere of detail
- The Qur’an is structurally reclassified