Al-A'raf 157

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This verse recurs in Shahrur’s project because it is one of the texts through which he brings together mercy, alleviation, and the lifting of prior shackles. It is central to him because it supports his understanding of the Muhammadan messengerhood as a message of facilitation and the removal of burdens.

The Verse as Cited

… and he permits for them wholesome things and forbids them foul things…

Reader’s Answer

Question

How does Shahrur employ Qur’an 7:157 in interpreting the relationship of the messengerhood to permission, prohibition, and alleviation?

Shahrur reads the verse as a statement of the function of the messengerhood in lifting prior burdens: it permits wholesome things and prohibits foul things within the Prophet’s message, and he associates it with the removal of hardship and shackles. He therefore does not present it as evidence of a personal prohibition issued by the Prophet, but as regulating what is permitted and forbidden within the message, whose purpose is alleviation.

Shahrur explicitly states that the permitting of wholesome things and the prohibiting of foul things in Qur’an 7:157 fall within what lifts hardship and shackles from the followers of the Torah and the Gospel. He therefore understands them within the Prophet’s message and its regulation of the sphere of permission and prohibition, rather than as a prohibition issued by him personally.

Citation and Location

Towards New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence — p. 137.

Limits of the Reading

  • This citation establishes Shahrur’s reading of the verse and the place of alleviation within it, but it does not by itself demonstrate the details of his list of prohibitions or his entire theory of contemporary legislation.
  • Describing this as a “purpose” of the verse is a summary of Shahrur’s use of it, not an independent judgment regarding the verse’s sole interpretive meaning.

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Brief Reading

Shahrur understands the verse as a description of the nature of the messengerhood, which permits wholesome things, prohibits foul things, and removes hardship and shackles from people. He therefore makes it one of the most important texts through which he reads permission and prohibition within the messengerhood, linking it to the purpose of alleviation rather than strictness.

Axes

  • Faith-related
  • Legislative
  • Linguistic and semantic
  • The wholesome and the foul: 2
  • Mercy: 2
  • Gentility: 2
  • Lifting shackles: 2
  • The permitted and the forbidden: 2
  • Alleviation: 1
  • Messengerhood: 1

Its Place in the Conceptual Network

The verse is connected with the wholesome and the foul, mercy, lifting shackles, and the permitted and the forbidden. It is central because it provides his project with a framework for reading the final messengerhood as alleviation and liberation, rather than the addition of new burdens.

The Verse’s Role in the Argument

  • Support: 6
  • Foundation: 1

Summary of Its Presence in the Atlas

  • The messengerhood is mercy and alleviation
  • Lifting shackles from previous laws
  • Its presence is clear in the permitted and the forbidden

Atlas Pages That Refer to This Verse

These links gather the pages that draw on the verse or make it part of the argument within the atlas.

Contexts of Use

  • Islam and the Human Being: He cites it as evidence that what is permitted is that which is agreeable to the self and innate disposition, and that foul things stand opposite human values.
    • Concept: the wholesome and the foul
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual citation: “{ … and he permits for them wholesome things and forbids them foul things … } (Al-A’raf 157)”
  • The Qur’an in Contemporary Thought, p. 26: He employs it to highlight that the Muhammadan messengerhood came to alleviate the shackles and constraints that existed in previous laws.
    • Concept: mercy
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual citation: “{… and he removes from them their burden and the shackles …} (Al-A’raf 157)”
  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 124: He uses it to affirm that “the unlettered” here does not mean literary illiteracy, but rather that he was neither Jewish nor Christian, while nevertheless being mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel.
    • Concept: gentility
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual citation: “{Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet…} (Al-A’raf 157).”
  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 384: He treats it as evidence that the Muhammadan messengerhood came by lifting prior legislative burdens and replacing them with alternative rulings.
    • Concept: lifting shackles
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual citation: “{Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet … and he removes from them their burden and the shackles…} (Al-A’raf 157). If we reflect upon the Wise Revelation, we find in it the alternative rulings for the deferred verses.”
  • Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation, p. 42: He cites it to affirm that the Muhammadan messengerhood alleviated prior legislative burdens.
    • Concept: alleviation
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual citation: “Its punishments were alleviated in comparison with those in the messages before it: { … and he removes from them their burden and the shackles … } (Al-A’raf 157).”
  • Towards New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, pp. 126–137: He cites it to show that the Messenger, in his message, permitted and prohibited within the scope of the message, not in his capacity as an individual person.
    • Concept: the permitted and the forbidden
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual citation: “{ … he commands them to what is recognized as right and forbids them what is condemned … } (Al-A’raf 157)”
  • Towards New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 137: He makes this verse foundational for understanding permission and prohibition as part of Muhammad’s message rather than his person, and links it to freeing followers from hardship and shackles.
    • Concept: messengerhood
    • Function of the verse here: foundation
    • Textual citation: “Thus, the wholesome things permitted by the Messenger and the foul things prohibited by him are among what removes hardship and shackles from the followers of the Torah and the Gospel.”

This page is presented within the general methodology for constructing the atlas.

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas