This entry belongs to the Shahrur glossary. It is part of the field of semantic distinctions among the names of the text and revelation: the Book, the Qur’an, the Reminder, the Criterion, the Mother of the Book, and the Wise Revelation.
Meaning in Shahrur
The Book is the encompassing structure of what the mushaf contains in terms of revealed fields and units. It is not equivalent to the Qur’an alone, but includes within it multiple domains: the Qur’an as the domain of facts and objective laws, the Mother of the Book as the domain of definitive verses and commands and prohibitions, and the detailing of the Book as an internal ordering and clarification of knowledge.
In this sense, the Book is broader than the Qur’an, and closer to the total structure of the text as Shahrur distributes it between prophethood and messengerhood, and the definitive and the ambiguous, and detailing.
Differences
- It differs from the Qur’an: the Qur’an is an objective/knowledge-based part of the Book, not a name that corresponds to the whole Book.
- It differs from the Mother of the Book: the Mother of the Book is the domain of definitive verses and constants within the broader structure.
- It differs from the Reminder: the Reminder is the side of the preserved and recited Arabic formulation of the Book.
- It differs from the Wise Revelation: the Wise Revelation describes revelation in terms of the stability of the text, the vitality of discourse, and the renewal of understanding, whereas the Book regulates the internal structure of the fields.
Foundational links
- The Book differs from the Qur’an
- The Book and the Qur’an are distinct
- The Book is not the Qur’an in its signification
- The Book has a dual structure of the definitive and the ambiguous
- The Book and the Qur’an
Limits of reading
This entry does not make the Book a single, simple technical term in every context; rather, it regulates the center of difference that the glossary needs: the Book must not be reduced to the Qur’an, nor the Qur’an reduced to the Book without functional distinction.