This axis brings together 4 instances of the use of this verse in the books of Muhammad Shahrur, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
Text of the verse as cited
And [recall] when We gave Moses the Book and the Criterion, so that you might be guided.
Reader’s answer
Question
How does Shahrur distinguish the meaning of “the Book” in Al-Baqarah 53, and what function does the verse serve in his argument?
Shahrur cites Al-Baqarah 53 as evidence for the second meaning of “the Book”: namely, only the verses of the message, or legislation, in the case of Moses. The verse serves to support his distinction between this specific meaning of the Book and its broader meaning, which encompasses everything in the muṣḥaf in the case of Muhammad.
Shahrur considers “the Book” in the statement concerning Moses in Al-Baqarah 53 to signify legislation alone, within the meaning of “the Book” that makes it the collection of the verses of the message. The verse is employed in Shahrur’s presentation of the distinction between a comprehensive meaning of the Book in the case of Muhammad and another meaning limited to the verses of the message—a meaning he holds to be shared by Moses and Jesus.
Citation and location
Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation — p. 32.
Limits of the reading
- The citation does not explain the term “the Criterion” in the verse or specify its meaning.
- The citation does not establish that the verse is used to include the Criterion within Moses’s message or to construct a specific comparison between the Criterion and the Qur’an.
- The citation does not state here that “the Book” is the Torah, although it maintains that Moses’s Book is legislation alone.
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Brief reading
Shahrur uses it to affirm that Moses’s message was associated with both the Book and the Criterion, and that the term Book here denotes legislation.
Axes
- Narrative and historical
- Legislative
- Linguistic and semantic
Related concepts
- The Criterion: 3
- The Book in the case of Moses: 3
Its place in the conceptual network
It is connected to the comparison between Moses’s message and Muhammad’s message, and to the distinction between the meanings of the Book.
The verse’s role in the argument
- Support: 4
Instances of use
- The Book and the Qur’an, p. 71: He cites it to include the Criterion within Moses’s message alongside the Torah, as a prelude to comparing it with the Qur’an and Muhammad’s message.
- Concept: The Criterion
- Function of the verse here: Support
- Textual citation: “{And [recall] when We gave Moses the Book and the Criterion, so that you might be guided.} (Al-Baqarah 53)”
- The Book and the Qur’an, p. 384: He presents it as evidence that the basis of earlier legislation was in Moses’s Book and the Criterion previously mentioned.
- Concept: The Criterion
- Function of the verse here: Support
- Textual citation: “- {And [recall] when We gave Moses the Book and the Criterion, so that you might be guided.} (Al-Baqarah 53).”
- Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation, p. 32: He cites it to establish that the Book in the case of Moses is a book of legislation, and that this meaning is shared by the People of the Book.
- Concept: The Book in the case of Moses
- Function of the verse here: Support
- Textual citation: “{And [recall] when We gave Moses the Book and the Criterion, so that you might be guided.} (Al-Baqarah 53)”
- Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation, p. 32: He cites it to clarify that the Book can mean legislation, and that this meaning is present in Moses’s message.
- Concept: The Book in the case of Moses
- Function of the verse here: Support
- Textual citation: “With regard to Moses, we find it in His saying, Most High: {And [recall] when We gave Moses the Book and the Criterion, so that you might be guided.} (Al-Baqarah 53).”
Related books
This page is presented within the general methodology for building the atlas.