Al-An'am 67

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This locus brings together 3 instances of the use of this verse in the books of Muhammad Shahrur, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

The Text of the Verse as Cited

{For every report is a settled time, and you will come to know}

Reader’s Answer

Question

How does Muhammad Shahrur employ the Qur’anic statement, {For every report is a settled time, and you will come to know}, in his discussion of knowledge and understanding the Qur’an?

Shahrur employs the verse to indicate, within the framework of his conception, that the interpretation or correspondence to reality of some of the reports conveyed by the Qur’an does not become clear all at once, but rather unfolds with the advancement of human knowledge and time. He therefore links it to the idea of “direct interpretation,” namely, correlating what the text indicates with what becomes perceptible through the senses. This use does not make the verse evidence that every understanding of the text is variable or valid; rather, he confines it to the emergence of Qur’anic significations that he regards as connected to the advancement of science and knowledge.

Shahrur cites the verse as part of his claim that the progress of knowledge and the sciences reveals the Qur’an’s inimitability more clearly, and that the Qur’an’s propositions enter, over time, into the sphere of perceptible realities. Shahrur calls this process “direct interpretation,” defining it in the same passage as the correspondence of what is perceived through the senses with the text; he places Qur’an 6:67 among the verses on which he relies for this conception.

Citation and Location

The Book and the Qur’an — p. 164.

Limits of the Reading

  • This presents Shahrur’s use of the verse as it appears in his texts; it does not assert that this is its sole meaning or the necessary implication of its wording.
  • The principal citation links the verse specifically to the advancement of knowledge and “direct interpretation”; extending this to all Qur’anic verses or to the validity of every historical reading is not established by this citation alone.
  • No detailed legal theory is inferred from the verse in this presentation; the discussion of the flexibility of rulings and limits appears in another citation within Shahrur’s broader construction and is not entailed by the verse alone.

Continue From Here

Brief Reading

The verse is used to support the idea that a report unfolds over time and that understanding the text is not confined to a single moment.

Axes

  • Methodological
  • Linguistic and semantic
  • Settling of the report: 2
  • Limits of understanding: 2
  • Report: 2

Its Place in the Conceptual Network

It belongs to the network of gradual reading of meaning and of linking knowledge to the reader’s development.

Role of the Verse in the Argument

  • Support: 3

Instances of Use

  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 164: He employs it to affirm that every report has an epistemic outcome that will become known over time.
    • Concept: Settling of the report
    • Function of the verse here: Support
    • Textual citation: “{For every report is a settled time, and you will come to know}”
  • Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 253: He cites it to suggest that understanding the text changes with the reader’s development, and that no one possesses an absolute understanding of the Book.
    • Concept: Limits of understanding
    • Function of the verse here: Support
    • Textual citation: “By virtue of His—exalted be He—statement: {For every report is a settled time, and you will come to know} (Al-An’am 67)”
  • Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation, p. 18: He adduces it to show that no one claims complete comprehension of the text’s meanings, and that knowledge unfolds historically with the reader’s development.
    • Concept: Report
    • Function of the verse here: Support
    • Textual citation: “{For every report is a settled time, and you will come to know} (Al-An’am 67).”

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

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas