This is a lexical entry that gathers the technical meaning of this term in Shahrur’s work across his different books, and connects its various usages.
This entry belongs to Shahrur’s glossary. For reading by theme, one may refer to Shahrur’s major themes and shared concepts.
The meaning in Shahrur
Al-Shahīd is one of God’s names that indicates the all-encompassing presence which surrounds things and witnesses them directly, not the one killed in the cause of belief. In Shahrur’s view, it is a divine, present meaning, distinct from the human inferential mode proper to al-Shāhid.
Distinctions
- It differs from al-Shāhid: al-Shāhid is established through knowledge and inference, whereas al-Shahīd’s witness is direct and present
- It is not meant in the common sense of the one killed in the cause of belief; that is a later usage that does not enter into this concept.
Passages from his books
- Islam and Faith: for Shahrur, al-Shahīd is not the one killed in the cause of belief, but one of God’s names that indicates encompassing, present witness. He also distinguishes it from al-Shāhid: the former is direct, present, and divine, while the latter is human, cognitive, and inferential
What is adjacent to it and what differs from it
- witness
- al-Shāhid
- al-Shahīd as one of God’s names
- the scientific ones among the witnesses
- the common meaning of al-Shahīd is later
- distinguishing al-Shāhid from al-Shahīd
- distinguishing al-Shahīd from al-Shāhid
- Shahrur’s concepts of unbelief, polytheism, and witness are cognitive, not combative
- Shahrur - witness