This axis brings together 1 instance of the use of this verse in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
Text of the Verse as Cited
And We had certainly established them in that wherein We have not established you, and We gave them hearing, sight, and fu’ads …
Reader’s Answer
Question
Where does Shahrur deploy Al-Ahqaf 26, what distinction does he read in it, and what function does it serve in his argument?
Shahrur deploys the verse in The State and Society, p. 29, in the course of discussing the formation of human knowledge. He treats it as evidence that individuated fu’adi perception is a basis of knowledge in humanity’s historical development. The excerpt is insufficient to establish that hearing and sight are “fixed faculties” or that analysis and synthesis come later as a direct consequence of the verse.
Shahrur reads Al-Ahqaf 26 as affirming that individuated fu’adi perception is a basis of knowledge across the stages of humanity’s historical development, with this basis continuing throughout. He places this citation within a conception in which thought and reason begin with initial impressions and memory, and pass through imagination; but in the excerpt he does not state whether the terms hearing, sight, and fu’ad are synonymous or non-synonymous.
Citation and Location
The State and Society — p. 29.
Limits of the Reading
- The excerpt ends at the beginning of the comparison with another verse, so it does not establish Shahrur’s later elaboration of hearing, sight, and fu’ad.
- The citation does not establish the claim that hearing, sight, and fu’ad are fixed faculties of perception.
- The citation does not establish that analysis and synthesis come later, nor does it provide a complete technical definition of the fu’ad.
- No relation of synonymy or linguistic distinction among these terms may be inferred merely from their appearing together in the verse unless the citation explicitly states it.
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Brief Reading
The verse is cited to affirm that hearing, sight, and fu’ad are fixed faculties of perception, and that analysis and synthesis come later.
Axes
- Faith-based
- Human and Ethical
Related Concepts
- Fu’ad: 2
- Hearing: 1
- Sight: 1
- Perception: 1
- Knowledge: 1
Its Place in the Conceptual Network
It is connected to his network of concepts of perception and the gradation of knowledge.
Role of the Verse in the Argument
- Support: 1
Instances of Use
- The State and Society, p. 29: He cites it to affirm that hearing, sight, and fu’ad are fixed faculties of perception, and that analysis and synthesis come later with the development of knowledge.
- Concept: Fu’ad
- Function of the verse here: Support
- Textual citation: “{And We had certainly established them in that wherein We have not established you, and We gave them hearing, sight, and fu’ads…} (Al-Ahqaf 26).”
Related Books
This page is presented within the general atlas-building methodology.