This axis brings together 3 instances of the use of this verse in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
Text of the verse as cited
Indeed, whoever earns an evil deed and is encompassed by his sin—those are the companions of the Fire; they shall remain therein forever.
Reader’s Answer
Question
How does Shahrur employ Al-Baqara 81 to distinguish between wrongdoing, an evil deed, and sin?
Shahrur employs the verse to support his assertion that sin arises when a wrongdoing or evil deed is committed and one persists in it without repentance.
Shahrur holds that sin is the commission of a wrongdoing or an evil deed together with persistence in it, and that failure to repent and persistence transform wrongdoing or an evil deed into sin. Shahrur cites Al-Baqara 81 as evidence for this meaning of sin, linking the earning of an evil deed to sin’s encompassing its bearer.
Evidence and Location
Islam and Faith — p. 107.
Limits of the Reading
- This passage establishes Shahrur’s interpretation and the verse’s argumentative function for him; it does not, by itself, establish the validity of this interpretation beyond his presentation.
- The evidence mentions wrongdoing and an evil deed in the process of transformation into sin, but does not assert that they are synonymous.
- The evidence does not provide an independent elaboration of the meaning of encompassing in the verse beyond its use within the definition of sin.
Continue From Here
Brief Reading
The verse is used to establish the meaning of sin as a wrongdoing in which its perpetrator persists until it encompasses him.
Axes
- Human and ethical
- Legislative
Related Concepts
- Sin: 3
- Persistence in wrongdoing: 2
Its Place in the Conceptual Network
It contributes to constructing an ethical concept that connects wrongdoing to persistence in it, rather than to merely falling into it.
The Verse’s Role in the Argument
- Support: 2
- Foundation: 1
Instances of Use
- Islam and the Human Being: He draws on it to define sin as a wrongdoing or evil deed persisted in without repentance.
- Concept: Sin
- Function of the verse here: Foundation
- Textual evidence: “We find this meaning of sin in His, exalted be He, saying: { Indeed, whoever earns an evil deed and is encompassed by his sin … } (Al-Baqara 81)”
- Islam and the Human Being: He uses it to link sin to persistence in an evil deed until it encompasses its perpetrator.
- Concept: Persistence in wrongdoing
- Function of the verse here: Support
- Textual evidence: “- { Indeed, whoever earns an evil deed and is encompassed by his sin … } (Al-Baqara 81),”
- Islam and Faith, p. 107: He uses it to define sin as persistence in wrongdoing or an evil deed until it encompasses its perpetrator.
- Concept: Sin
- Function of the verse here: Support
- Textual evidence: “- { Indeed, whoever earns an evil deed and is encompassed by his sin… } (Al-Baqara 81),”
Related Books
This page is presented within the atlas’s general atlas-building methodology.