This axis brings together 2 places where this verse is used in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
The verse text as cited
AND FIGHT IN THE WAY OF GOD THOSE WHO FIGHT YOU, BUT DO NOT TRANSGRESS; GOD DOES NOT LOVE THE TRANSGRESSORS
Brief reading
Shahrur makes it the first place in the chapter on fighting to establish that it is an act governed by conditions and directed at combatants, not at people in general.
Axes
- Legislative
- Political and social
Related concepts
- Fighting: 2
- Fighting combatants: 2
Its place in the conceptual network
It establishes the limits of fighting within a network of preventing aggression and regulating war.
The verse’s role in the argument
- Foundational: 2
Places of use
- Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 77: he makes it the first Qur’anic locus in the chapter on fighting to build on it the argument that fighting is a Qur’anic term governed by conditions and not an unrestricted license for violence.
- Concept: fighting
- Function of the verse here: Foundational
- Textual evidence: “Its first is in the saying of the Exalted: {AND FIGHT IN THE WAY OF GOD THOSE WHO FIGHT YOU…} (al-Baqarah 190).”
- Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 114: he counts it among the explanatory verses that restrict fighting to those who actually fight and forbid aggression.
- Concept: fighting combatants
- Function of the verse here: Foundational
- Textual evidence: “Verses detailing fighting … al-Baqarah (190) | { AND FIGHT IN THE WAY OF GOD THOSE WHO FIGHT YOU, AND DO NOT TRANSGRESS … }“
Related books
This page is presented within the general method of building the atlas.