Aal Imran 169

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This axis gathers 5 places where this verse is used in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, with a linking to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

The verse as quoted

And do not think of those who were killed in the path of God as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, being provided for.

Brief reading

In Shahrur, the verse appears in a critique of linking martyrs to those killed in combat, and in reopening the meaning of martyrdom in the faith-based context.

Axes

  • Narrative and historical
  • Faith-based
  • Methodological
  • martyrs: 3
  • martyrs and the slain: 2
  • critique of interpretation: 2
  • martyrdom: 2

Its place in the network of concepts

It is connected to correcting the inherited interpretation of the concept of martyrs.

The verse’s role in the argument

  • critique of tradition: 4
  • support: 1

Summary of its presence in the atlas

  • critique of linking martyrs to the slain
  • connected to correcting interpretation
  • its presence in dismantling the common reading

Uses

  • Islam and Faith, p. 168: He mentions it and then rejects linking it to those killed in the path of God, saying that this linkage is not found in the Wise Revelation but came from a later custom.
    • concept: martyrs and the slain
    • function of the verse here: critique of tradition
    • textual evidence: “Some may be prompted by the following question: where are the war dead about whom He, exalted, said: {And do not think of those who were killed in the path of God as dead. Rather, they are alive…} (Aal Imran 169); are they not the martyrs?”
    • the corresponding traditional reading: the martyr is one killed in the path of God
  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 322: He makes it evidence that the martyrs are alive with their Lord immediately after death, and that their provision is material/actual with God.
    • concept: martyrs
    • function of the verse here: support
    • textual evidence: “Thus He said about the martyrs: {And do not think of those who were killed in the path of God as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, being provided for} (Aal Imran 169)…”
  • Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 75: He uses it as an example of how the interpretive tradition restricted martyrdom to martyrs of combat and read the verse in the context of the dead of Badr, Uhud, or Bi’r Ma’una.
    • concept: martyrs
    • function of the verse here: critique of tradition
    • textual evidence: “The interpretation of Aal Imran 169 … ‘when God related the saying of the hypocrites concerning the slain martyrs… He then mentioned what God has prepared for the martyrs’”
    • the corresponding traditional reading: specifying it as the martyrs of Badr, Uhud, or Bi’r Ma’una
  • Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 295: He denies that the verse is evidence for the meaning of martyrdom or martyrs, and considers linking it to that a common illusion.
    • concept: critique of interpretation
    • function of the verse here: critique of tradition
    • textual evidence: “And His, exalted, saying: {And do not think of those who were killed in the path of God as dead …} (Aal Imran 169) has absolutely no connection to martyrdom or martyrs, as many imagine.”
    • the corresponding traditional reading: linking the verse to martyrdom or martyrs
  • Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation, p. 67: He denies any connection between the verse and the current common concept of martyrs, opposing the common reading.
    • concept: martyrdom
    • function of the verse here: critique of tradition
    • textual evidence: “And His, exalted, saying: { And do not think of those who were killed in the path of God as dead … } (Aal Imran 169) has absolutely no connection to martyrdom or martyrs, as many imagine.”
    • the corresponding traditional reading: many imagine that the verse pertains to martyrdom and martyrs

This page is presented within the general methodology of building the atlas.

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas