This lexicon entry brings together the technical meaning of this term in Shahrur’s various books and connects its multiple uses.
This entry belongs to المعجم الشحروري. For reading by theme, see موضوعات شحرور الكبرى and المفاهيم المشتركة.
Meaning in Shahrur
It is an individual religious affiliation based on the human being’s relationship with God and on the requirements of faith. It is not understood as a political allegiance or subordination to a ruling group. It is intended to keep religion within the sphere of personal conviction and commitment, while preventing its transformation into an instrument in struggles for power or partisan affiliation.
Distinctions
- It differs from the civil state: the civil state regulates the public sphere through law, whereas this allegiance belongs to the realm of individual faith, not the administration of government.
- It differs from political and collective allegiances: it does not indicate partisan alignment or collective authority.
- It is close to the meaning of Islam as a religious message, but here it is confined to the aspect of individual commitment, not to history or conceptual comprehensiveness.
Occurrences in His Books
- Islam and the Human Being: Universal allegiance is understood here as an individual religious conviction grounded in the relationship between the human being and God, not as a political allegiance or collective authority. The source uses this distinction to prevent the conflation of religion with struggles for rule or with political affiliations.
Related and Contrasting Concepts
- Islam precedes, historically and conceptually, the particularity of the Muhammadan message.
- The civil state regulates the public sphere through law, not through religious prohibition.
- Universal allegiance is individual and religious.