Al-An'am 38

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This axis brings together 5 loci where this verse is used in the works of Muhammad Shahrur, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

Text of the Verse as Cited

There is no creature on earth, nor bird flying on its wings, but they are communities like yourselves. We have omitted nothing from the Book; then to their Lord they will be gathered.

Reader’s Answer

Question

Where does Qur’an 6:38 stand in Shahrur’s argumentation, what criterion of “umma” does he derive from it, and what function does it serve in his argument?

The verse appears in Shahrur’s work within a series of textual evidences for defining “umma.” He makes its criterion the unity of conduct, and uses the verse from al-An’am to include land creatures and birds among groups that may be described as communities, rather than restricting umma to humans.

Shahrur presents Qur’an 6:38 among Qur’anic examples in which he connects the description “umma” to the homogeneity or unity of conduct within a group. Along with other textual evidences, he employs the verse to indicate that unity of conduct may occur among groups of humans, jinn, land creatures, and birds, and that each such group may constitute an umma.

Evidence and Location

Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism — p. 170.

Limits of the Reading

  • In this passage, the evidence does not interpret the phrase “We have omitted nothing from the Book”; therefore, no claim about the comprehensiveness of the Revelation or the Book should be built upon it here.
  • The evidence does not establish that “umma” means every aggregation with shared conduct as an exhaustive and exclusive definition; rather, it connects it to unity of conduct in the examples it presents.
  • The evidence does not establish that the verse creates a special relationship between humans and animals beyond its use as an example of the possibility of describing groups of land creatures and birds as communities.

Continue from Here

Brief Reading

Shahrur draws on the verse to expand the meaning of umma and connect the Revelation to a comprehensiveness extending beyond humans alone.

Axes

  • Methodological
  • Narrative and Historical
  • Umma: 5
  • Comprehensiveness of the Book: 2

Its Place in the Conceptual Network

It contributes to the construction of the concept of umma and signals the extension of the Book’s signification.

The Verse’s Role in the Argument

  • Foundational: 3
  • Support: 1
  • Example: 1

Summary of Its Presence in the Atlas

  • Expanding the meaning of umma
  • A comprehensiveness extending beyond humans
  • Its presence in the signification of the Book

Loci of Use

  • Islam and the Human Being: He adduces it to argue that, for him, umma does not refer only to humans but to every group with shared conduct, including among animals.
    • Concept: Umma
    • Function of the verse here: Support
    • Textual evidence: “The term (communities) has been used … such that we find that He, exalted be He, applied it to beasts in His saying: {There is no creature …} (al-An’am 38).”
  • State and Society, p. 73: He employs it to support the idea that the Revelation contains indications of the development of the Arabic language and its later stages.
    • Concept: Comprehensiveness of the Book
    • Function of the verse here: Foundational
    • Textual evidence: “Thus, we have laid our hands on one of the meanings of {We have omitted nothing from the Book} (al-An’am 38).”
  • Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 170: He cites it to expand the concept of umma to every group united by a particular pattern of conduct.
    • Concept: Umma
    • Function of the verse here: Example
    • Textual evidence: “{There is no creature on earth… but they are a community…} (al-An’am 38).”
  • Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 291: He takes it as a basis for defining umma as a group of creatures united by a uniform conduct.
    • Concept: Umma
    • Function of the verse here: Foundational
    • Textual evidence: “For His saying—Exalted is He—: {There is no creature on earth …} (al-An’am 38).”
  • Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 291: He builds on it a definition of umma as a group of creatures united by a uniform conduct, extending the concept to non-rational beings.
    • Concept: Umma
    • Function of the verse here: Foundational
    • Textual evidence: “Then there is His saying—Exalted is He—: {There is no creature … but they are communities like yourselves} (al-An’am 38).”

This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas