This locus brings together 1 instance 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
And He has not placed upon you in religion any hardship …
Reader’s Answer
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur employ the Qur’anic statement, “And He has not placed upon you in religion any hardship,” in explaining the purpose of religion?
Shahrur employs the verse to deny that the purpose of religion is to humiliate human beings or torment them in this world. He presents it as evidence that religion is directed toward their well-being in this world and the Hereafter, within commitment to the straight path, faith, righteous action, and piety.
Shahrur understands from the verse that religion is not intended to humiliate people in order for God to be pleased, nor to torment them in this world. He links the negation of hardship to a positive proposition: human well-being in this world and the Hereafter, rather than release from the axis of the straight path. In the same context, Shahrur mentions faith in God and the Last Day, righteous action, and piety as landmarks of this axis.
Evidence and Location
Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism — p. 32.
Limits of the Reading
- The evidence establishes this general use of the verse in criticizing portrayals of religion as humiliation or torment, but it does not provide a detailed theory of the meaning of “hardship” or practical rules for judging every obligation or law to be hardship or not.
- The verse occurs here within a discussion of spending, zakat, and capacity, but the quoted text does not state that the ruling is confined to zakat; it should therefore not be attributed to him as a specification of the verse to this subject.
- The evidence does not establish that Shahrur denies every difficulty or every religious commitment; rather, he qualifies the discussion of well-being by “a basic axis, namely the straight path,” and by faith, righteous action, and piety.
Continue from Here
Brief Reading
The verse supports the principle of removing hardship from human beings in religion and of not intending distress or humiliation for them.
Axes
- Legislative
- Human and Ethical
Related Concepts
- Removal of hardship: 2
Its Place in the Network of Concepts
It falls within the concepts that make religious discourse attentive to human capacity.
Role of the Verse in the Argument
- Support: 1
Contexts of Use
- Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 32: He employs it to establish that religion does not intend humiliation or distress, but rather takes human well-being and capacity into account.
- Concept: Removal of hardship
- Function of the verse here: Support
- Textual evidence: “{And He has not placed upon you in religion any hardship …} (Hajj 78)”
Related Books
This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.