This is a lexical entry that gathers the technical meaning of this term in Shahrur across his different books, and links together its various uses.
This entry belongs to the Shahrur lexicon. For reading by theme, one can refer to Shahrur’s major themes and shared concepts.
The meaning in Shahrur
The bad deed is the mistaken act that has a practical effect on people or creatures, so that responsibility for it falls on correction and compensation, not on inner remorse alone. It indicates a violation that requires social or legal remedy, and it may be expiated through corrective action and practical repentance.
Distinctions
- It differs from sin in that sin may be dominated by the aspect of blame and forgiveness, whereas the bad deed foregrounds the burden of the act and the necessity of correction
- It differs from error in that error is more closely associated with persistence and deviation, whereas the bad deed indicates a bad act that can be expiated through reform.
Places in his books
- Islam and Humanity: the bad deed is the act that falls within practical moral responsibility, especially when it concerns people and creatures. In this source, it is not erased by remorse alone, but requires social or legal reform and practical expiation
What it neighbors and differs from
- Human Islam is reconstituted Qur’anically as a system of values, freedom, and citizenship that transcends closed identity
- Islam precedes the Muhammadan message historically and conceptually
- The distinction among sin, bad deed, and error distributes responsibility between forgiveness, reform, and persistence
- Good deeds erase bad deeds through repentance
- Sin, bad deed, and error
- Bad deeds are expiated through reform
- The Qur’anic method and the redefinition of concepts move Islam from identity to values