This is a lexicon entry that gathers the technical meaning of this term in Shahrur’s work across his different books, and connects its various uses.
This entry belongs to the Shahrur lexicon. For thematic reading, see Shahrur’s major themes and shared concepts.
Meaning in Shahrur
The Qur’an is the foundational text and the highest authority to which rulings and religious knowledge are referred. It is taken as the basis for rethinking religion and for contemporary ijtihad, not as subordinate to inherited jurisprudence or later commentaries.
Distinctions
- It is not equivalent to inherited jurisprudence, nor does it stand in its place; jurisprudence is a historical human product understood in the light of the Qur’an
- It is not treated as merely interpretive material within the tradition, but as a governing original against which all other religious propositions are measured.
Occurrences in his books
- The Qur’an in Contemporary Thought: In this book, the Qur’an is the highest authority and the judge over everything that has accumulated from jurisprudence, hadith, and exegesis. Shahrur presents it as the text that opens the door to contemporary reading and ijtihad, not as material to be read only through the inherited juristic tradition
What adjoins it and differs from it
- The Qur’an is the highest authority
- The sayings of the Prophet and the Companions are historical documents
- Reconstructing Islamic thought requires liberating knowledge, jurisprudence, and politics by returning to the Qur’an
- The sharia allows human ijtihad
- The sharia opens the field of ijtihad
- Inherited jurisprudence is a historical human construct that does not possess authority equal to the Qur’an
- Inherited jurisprudence does not coincide with the Qur’an
- Inherited jurisprudence is separate from the Qur’an
- Jurisprudence is a historical human heritage that does not possess authority equal to the Qur’an
- Jurisprudence is a historical human understanding
- The Qur’an in Contemporary Thought reconstitutes the understanding of religion on the basis of the authority of the Qur’an, ijtihad, plurality, and the civil state
- The Qur’an is a new contemporary reading