This locus brings together 1 instance of the use of this verse in the books of Muhammad Shahrur, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
Text of the verse as cited
And You honour whom You will, and abase whom You will.
Reader’s Answer
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur employ God’s saying, “And You honour whom You will, and abase whom You will,” in his discussion of the name “the All-Merciful”?
Shahrur employs the verse to maintain that “the All-Merciful,” in his conception, brings opposites together; he makes the conjunction of honouring and abasing in the verse an example of this combination. For him, the verse is not evidence for the meaning of mercy as an intensification of tenderness; rather, it is a witness within a broader framework through which he defines “the All-Merciful” as encompassing contrasting attributes.
Shahrur states that the opposition between “the Honouring One” and “the Abasing One” is brought together in God’s saying, “And You honour whom You will, and abase whom You will,” and he uses this to explain “the All-Merciful” as “the simultaneous combination of the two opposites.” Shahrur connects this example to another example, namely the conjunction of punishment and mercy, and then describes the All-Merciful as “the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Compeller.”
Evidence and Location
Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism — p. 35.
Limits of the Reading
- The evidence establishes the attribution of this understanding to Shahrur in this passage, but does not provide independent proof that “the All-Merciful” means exclusively the combination of opposites.
- The verse should not be reduced to the binary of “the Honouring One and the Abasing One” apart from its Qur’anic context, nor should additional conclusions not mentioned by the evidence be attributed to it.
- Shahrur’s statement that the term “the All-Merciful” never conveys “an intensification of mercy” is part of the thesis stated in the evidence, not a conclusion compelled by this quotation alone.
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Brief Reading
Shahrur cites it as evidence for the conjunction of the Honouring One and the Abasing One in the divine will, within his understanding of the All-Merciful.
Axes
- Theological
- Linguistic and Semantic
Related Concepts
- opposition: 2
- the Honouring One: 1
- the Abasing One: 1
- the All-Merciful: 1
- divine will: 1
Its Place in the Conceptual Network
It contributes to the construction of a conception based on the conjunction of opposites in divine action.
Role of the Verse in the Argument
- Support: 1
Instances of Use
- Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 35: He cites it as evidence for the conjunction of the Honouring One and the Abasing One in the divine will, within his conception of the All-Merciful.
- Concept: opposition
- Function of the verse here: Support
- Textual evidence: “{And You honour whom You will, and abase whom You will} (Aal Imran 26)”
Related Books
This page is presented within the general atlas-building methodology.