Al-Israʾ 33

7 min read

This verse recurs in Shahrur’s project because it is among the foundational texts for the inviolability of the soul and for regulating killing by right. It is central to him because it prevents the excesses of vengeance, keeps retribution within its limits, and ties the exception to right rather than to emotional impulse.

The text of the verse as cited

And do not kill the soul which God has made inviolable except by right…

Reader’s answer

The question

How does Muhammad Shahrur employ Qur’an 17:33 in understanding killing and retribution, and what is meant by the prohibition against excess in killing?

Shahrur employs the verse to affirm the inviolability of killing a soul, while excepting what he considers killing “by right.” In his explanation of the prohibition against excess, he maintains that killing the killer may occur only through the application of law or legislation, not as revenge; thus, he makes the verse a barrier against transforming the right of the slain person’s guardian into vengeance that exceeds the law.

Shahrur interprets “excess” as overstepping and pressing forward in the transition from what is lawful to what is forbidden, rather than as merely a quantitative increase. He invokes God’s words, “let him not exceed the limits in killing,” to argue that killing the killer, where the law permits it, takes place through the application of legislation rather than through revenge.

The citation and its location

A Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation — p. 50.

Limits of the reading

  • The citation establishes Shahrur’s connection between the prohibition against excess and the application of law, as well as his rejection of revenge, but it does not explain here the procedures of judicial proof or the conditions for issuing a judgment.
  • This citation alone is insufficient to establish a comprehensive account of Shahrur’s theory of retribution or of all the forms of “right” mentioned at the beginning of the verse.
  • The claim that retribution is “from the killer himself only” is apparent in the citation’s phrase “killing the killer,” but it does not provide here a detailed interpretive construction regarding questions of responsibility or alternative penalties.

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Brief reading

Shahrur understands the verse as restricting the killing of a soul solely to cases of right, and as making retribution delimited and incapable of expansion. From this, he rejects its transformation into vengeance and makes the prohibition against excess part of protecting the soul and preventing the judgment from extending beyond the offender.

Axes

  • Legislative
  • Human and ethical
  • Methodological
  • Inviolability of the soul: 3
  • Retribution: 3
  • Ijtihad: 2
  • Killing by right: 2
  • Excess: 2
  • The right to kill: 1

Its place in the network of concepts

The verse is connected to the inviolability of the soul, retribution, the right to kill, and excess. It is central because it gives his project a basis for preserving life, defines the exception to the principle, and connects punishment to the restraint of law rather than to anger.

The verse’s role in the argument

  • Support: 3
  • Context: 2
  • Foundation: 2
  • Example: 1

Summary of its presence in the atlas

  • It establishes the inviolability of the soul and regulates killing.
  • It is connected to retribution and the prevention of excess.
  • It is used to reject expansive vengeance.

Atlas pages referring to this verse

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

Contexts of use

  • Islam and the Human Being: He interprets it to mean that retribution applies only to the killer himself and entails neither excess nor vengeance.
    • Concept: Inviolability of the soul
    • Function of the verse here: Support
    • Textual citation: “- { And do not kill the soul which God has made inviolable except by right … } (Al-Israʾ 33)”
  • Islam and Faith, p. 77: He cites it within a list of definitive verses connected to preserving life, placing it in the context of the enduring values that developed in the Muhammadan message.
    • Concept: Inviolability of the soul
    • Function of the verse here: Context
    • Textual citation: “- {And do not kill the soul which God has made inviolable except by right…} (Al-Israʾ 33).”
  • The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna, p. 48: He includes it among the remaining commandments in order to affirm that it is part of the wisdom revealed to the messengers.
    • Concept: Retribution
    • Function of the verse here: Context
    • Textual citation: “And [the prohibition] against killing the soul which God has made inviolable except by right (Al-Israʾ 33)”
  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 142: He uses it to argue that the right involved in the exception permitting killing remains a matter of historical ijtihad among nations, rather than a fixed and absolute judgment.
    • Concept: Ijtihad
    • Function of the verse here: Example
    • Textual citation: “{And do not kill the soul which God has made inviolable except by right} (Al-Israʾ 33), permits killing a soul by right”
  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 413: He cites it to establish that execution, or lawful killing, is the furthest penalty that a judgment may reach in crimes of killing without right.
    • Concept: Killing by right
    • Function of the verse here: Support
    • Textual citation: “b- {And do not kill the soul which God has made inviolable except by right …} (Al-Israʾ 33).”
  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 413: He understands the verse to mean that execution is the maximum penalty for intentional killing, and that the prohibition against excess prevents retribution from being transformed into vengeance that extends beyond the offender to his family.
    • Concept: Retribution
    • Function of the verse here: Foundation
    • Textual citation: “{And do not kill the soul… let him not exceed the limits in killing…} (Al-Israʾ 33). Here he set forth the maximum penalty for killing without right, which is execution”
    • Corresponding traditional reading: Vengeance, or killing the killer’s family in his stead
  • Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 53: He presents it as a broader formulation than the preceding one because it restricts killing to cases of right and extends the concept of the soul to include animals and plants within the framework of lawful benefit.
    • Concept: The right to kill
    • Function of the verse here: Foundation
    • Textual citation: “Then the Muhammadan law came with something better than it, in His—Exalted be He—words: {And do not kill the soul … except by right} (Al-Israʾ 33).”
  • A Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation, pp. 50–51: He applies it to killing the killer in order to affirm that exceeding lawful retribution is forbidden excess.
    • Concept: Excess
    • Function of the verse here: Support
    • Textual citation: “And regarding what is forbidden, in His words—Exalted be He—: { And do not kill the soul … let him not exceed the limits in killing }”

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

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas