Al-Baqarah 216

4 min read

This verse recurs in Shahrur’s project because it is one of the clearest texts he reads as a heavy, not beloved, duty. It is central for him because it regulates the understanding of fighting as an emergency ruling, not a permanent value or an original slogan of religion.

The verse as cited

FIGHTING HAS BEEN DECREED FOR YOU, THOUGH IT IS HATEFUL TO YOU

Brief reading

Shahrur understands the verse to mean that fighting has been prescribed for the believers, but that it is hateful to them. For him, this indicates that it is an exceptional duty tied to necessity. From here he refuses to turn it into a goal or identity, and he makes it governed by its circumstance and the conditions surrounding it.

Axes

  • legislative
  • faith-related
  • human and ethical
  • fighting: 6
  • duty: 2
  • dislike: 2
  • hatred: 2

Its place in the network of concepts

The verse is linked to fighting, duty, dislike, and hatred. It is central because it provides his project with a basis for reading heavy rulings outside of exaggeration, and it confirms that what is prescribed for people may run counter to natural inclination.

The role of the verse in the argument

  • Foundation: 3
  • Support: 3
  • Critique of the tradition: 1
  • Context: 1

Summary of its presence in the atlas

  • Fighting in it is a disliked duty, not an identity.
  • It is connected to necessity and moral capacity.
  • It is used to reject turning fighting into a goal.

Places of use

  • Islam and Faith, p. 44: he makes it a model of a prescribed duty that goes against human nature and requires struggle and ability, not the satisfaction of the self or the whims of society.
    • Concept: fighting
    • Function of the verse here: Foundation
    • Textual evidence: «{كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِتَالُ وَهُوَ كُرْهٌ لَكُمْ…} (البقرة ٢١٦).»
  • The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna, p. 52: he uses it together with others to represent the prescribed rulings from which he analogizes the obligation of bequest.
    • Concept: duty
    • Function of the verse here: Support
    • Textual evidence: «والقتال (البقرة ٢١٦) والصيام (البقرة ١٨٧)»
  • Drying Up the Springs of Terrorism, p. 39: he cites it to affirm that fighting is marked by dislike and limited by its circumstance, not a permanent message of mercy.
    • Concept: fighting
    • Function of the verse here: Support
    • Textual evidence: «﴿كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِتَالُ وَهُوَ كُرْهٌ لَّكُمْ …﴾ (البقرة ٢١٦)»
  • Drying Up the Springs of Terrorism, p. 78: he makes it the basis for considering fighting an emergency, disliked duty, not a collective obligation and not a voluntary act.
    • Concept: fighting
    • Function of the verse here: Foundation
    • Textual evidence: «فهو ”كُرْهٌ – بضم الكاف“ … وأما قولنا إن القتال تكليف، فبدلالة قوله – تعالى – ”كتب“ …»
    • Counter-traditional reading: turning fighting into a collective obligation
  • Drying Up the Springs of Terrorism, p. 82: he discusses the commentators’ readings of the word decreed and disagrees with them in making fighting an individual obligation rather than merely a collective ruling or one open to traditional interpretation.
    • Concept: fighting
    • Function of the verse here: Critique of the tradition
    • Textual evidence: «وها أنذا ”كتب“ … في تفسير آية البقرة ٢١٦ … وأما أنه ”كتب“، فهو اختيار …»
    • Counter-traditional reading: the view of collective sufficiency or the tradition’s reading of the verse
  • Drying Up the Springs of Terrorism, p. 83: he builds on it to argue that fighting is an emergency duty that states the ruling and postpones its objectives and conditions to other passages.
    • Concept: fighting
    • Function of the verse here: Foundation
    • Textual evidence: «حين تحدث … {كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِتَالُ وَهُوَ كُرْهٌ لَّكُمْ} … فقد اقتصر في الآية على التكليف بأمر اضطراري مكروه»
  • Drying Up the Springs of Terrorism, p. 157: he uses it in the linguistic derivation of dislike to explain the meaning of aversion and hardship before moving on to coercion.
    • Concept: dislike
    • Function of the verse here: Context
    • Textual evidence: «أولها في قوله – تعالى –: {كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِتَالُ وَهُوَ كُرْهٌ لَّكُمْ…}»
  • Drying Up the Springs of Terrorism, p. 187: he uses it to argue that love and hate are feelings that are not suitable as a criterion for doctrinal duty.
    • Concept: hatred
    • Function of the verse here: Support
    • Textual evidence: «{وَعَسَى أَنْ تَكْرَهُوا شَيْئًا وَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ…} (البقرة ٢١٦).»

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

Graph View

Backlinks3

Muhammad Shahrur Atlas