This is a lexicon entry that gathers the technical meaning of this term in Shahrur across his various books, and connects its multiple usages.
This entry belongs to the Shahrur glossary. For reading by theme, one may refer to Shahrur’s major themes and shared concepts.
The meaning according to Shahrur
A station that pertains to the unseen, revelation, and the narrative accounts in the Prophet’s life, and is understood as a historical and contextual domain that does not in itself constitute evidence for enduring legislation. In this conception, a distinction is made between what issued from the Prophet in the station of prophethood and what issued from him in the station of messengerhood, so that reports and events are not taken as legally binding legislation.
Distinctions
- It is not the station of messengerhood, which includes conveyance and binding legislation
- It does not include the Prophet’s daily actions as a Sunna that must be followed, because they belong to the human historical domain rather than to enduring obligation.
Passages from his books
- The messengerly Sunna and the prophetic Sunna: It represents the domain of the unseen, revelation, and narrative accounts, and for Muhammad Shahrur it is a sphere distinct from the station of messengerhood. In this source, it is used to restrict what is attributed to the Prophet as history and context, not as enduring legislation
What is adjacent to it and differs from it
- The station of messengerhood
- The Prophet’s daily actions are not a binding Sunna
- The messengerly Sunna and the prophetic Sunna
- The prophetic Sunna, political history, and hadith are a human domain open to critique
- The prophetic Sunna and the domain of narrative accounts
- The Sunna is divided into messengerly and prophetic according to the station
- The Sunna is divided according to the station into binding messengerly and historical prophetic
- Prophethood in Shahrur is a historical function in organization, ijtihad, and state-building
- The probative status of the Sunna and its limits are based on the primacy of the Qur’an, criticism of hadith, and distinction between the two stations
- The station of prophethood and the station of messengerhood
- Counting the waiting period is a prophetic rational act
- Shahrur - the Prophet