This is a lexical entry that gathers the technical meaning of this term in Shahrur across his various books and connects its multiple usages.
This entry belongs to Shahrur’s lexicon. For reading by theme, see Shahrur’s major themes and shared concepts.
The meaning in Shahrur
Processuality is the movement of time inherent in matter, that is, the changing aspect of existence that reveals the continuous transformation in things and events. Muhammad Shahrur uses it to reject the notion of religion or history as fixed outside change, and to show that understanding takes place within movement, not within stillness.
Distinctions
- It is not becoming, because becoming denotes the ultimate outcome, not movement itself
- It is not being, because being refers to the aspect of stability and subsistence, whereas processuality refers to transformation.
- It is not the fixity of the text, because what is meant here is the change of existence and events, not the denial or cancellation of the text’s origin.
Occurrences in his books
- Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence: processuality in Muhammad Shahrur is the movement of time associated with matter, not stillness. Its function in his argument is that it explains the continuous transformation within existence and prevents reading religion or history as fixed and unchanging
What is adjacent to it and different from it
- The foundations of the new jurisprudence are based on distinguishing between the fixity of the text and the historicity of understanding
- Processuality is the movement of time
- Becoming is the ultimate outcome
- The world needs becoming
- Existence can only be understood through the interdependence of being, processuality, and becoming
- The triad of being, processuality, and becoming
- Understanding religion and legislation rests on the triad of being, processuality, and becoming