Al-A'raf 33

This hub brings together 5 instances of the use of this verse in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking them to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

The verse as cited

Say: My Lord has only forbidden immoralities… and sin and unjust transgression…

Brief reading

The verse is made into a basis for enumerating the prohibited, and is also used to show that meaning rests on structure and on what is understood from what is left unsaid.

Axes

• Legislative
• Linguistic and semantic

Related concepts

• the unsaid: 3
• prohibition: 2
• the prohibited: 2
• the forbidden: 2

Its place in the network of concepts

It is linked to a reading of prohibition as a semantic structure rather than as isolated words.

The verse’s role in the argument

• Foundation: 2
• Example: 2
• Support: 1

Summary of its presence in the atlas

• Enumerating the prohibited
• The unsaid in structure
• Its presence in the structure of prohibition

Pages in the atlas that refer to this verse

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

Related atoms

• Language serves meaning

Places of use

• Islam and Human Being: treats it as the basis for enumerating the fourteen prohibitions, including shirk, transgression, sin, and speaking falsely about God.
  • Concept: prohibition
  • Function of the verse here: Foundation
  • Textual evidence: «{ قُلْ إِنَّمَا حَرَّمَ رَبِّيَ الْفَوَاحِشَ … وَالْإِثْمَ وَالْبَغْيَ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ … } (al-A’raf 33)»
• The Qur’an in Contemporary Thought, p. 32: invokes it to argue that theft falls under transgression and the prohibited assault on people’s rights.
  • Concept: the prohibited
  • Function of the verse here: Support
  • Textual evidence: «For this reason he forbids theft, as in His, the Exalted’s, saying: {قُلْ إِنَّمَا حَرَّمَ رَبِّيَ الْفَوَاحِشَ…} (al-A’raf 33)»
• Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 254: uses it as an example of how meaning is not understood from the wording alone, but from the structure and from what the unsaid in the context requires.
  • Concept: the unsaid
  • Function of the verse here: Example
  • Textual evidence: «And when we read His, the Exalted’s, saying: {وَالْإِثْمُ وَالْبَغْيَ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ} (al-A’raf 33), we implicitly and necessarily understand that there is sin and transgression with right»
• A Guide to Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation, p. 18: uses it as a linguistic example showing that from the Qur’anic structure one understands what is unsaid, that is, the existence of an unmentioned opposite.
  • Concept: the unsaid
  • Function of the verse here: Example
  • Textual evidence: «{ وَالْإِثْمُ وَالْبَغْيَ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ } (al-A’raf 33)»
• A Guide to Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation, p. 47: sets it up as the basis for restricting divine prohibition to immoralities, sin, transgression, shirk, and speaking falsely about God.
  • Concept: the forbidden
  • Function of the verse here: Foundation
  • Textual evidence: «His saying, the Exalted: { قُلْ إِنَّمَا حَرَّمَ رَبِّيَ الْفَوَاحِشَ … وَأَنْ تَقُولُوا عَلَى اللهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ } (al-A’raf 33)»

Related books

• Islam and Human Being
• The Qur’an in Contemporary Thought
• Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism
• A Guide to Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation

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