Al-Dhariyat 56–57

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This locus gathers 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 I DID NOT CREATE JINN AND HUMANKIND EXCEPT TO WORSHIP ME * I DO NOT SEEK PROVISION FROM THEM…

Reader’s answer

The question

Where does Shahrur employ Al-Dhariyat 56–57, how does he distinguish between «servants» and «slaves», and what function do the two verses serve in his argument?

Shahrur employs Al-Dhariyat 56–57 in his discussion of the “covenant” in the book Islam and Faith (p. 108), treating them as a premise for the claim that worship of God rests on freedom of choice rather than on a relation of slavery. In this passage, he distinguishes between people being “servants” and being “slaves”: for him, being servants is connected to the possibility of choosing obedience or disobedience, faith or unbelief; accordingly, he rejects describing the relationship as one of “servitude.”

Shahrur cites Al-Dhariyat 56–57 within his presentation of the covenant and presents the two verses as indicating people’s freedom in worshipping God. Shahrur distinguishes between “servants” and “slaves”: people, in his view, were created free in order to be servants, and their status as servants is realized through the freedom to choose between obedience and disobedience, and between faith and unbelief. In his argument, the verses serve to deny what he calls the relationship of “people’s servitude to God” and to affirm a free relation of service joined to reckoning and accountability.

Citation and location

Islam and Faith — p. 108.

Limits of the reading

  • This account establishes Shahrur’s use of the two verses and his stated distinction in this passage alone; it does not establish a general judgment concerning all his uses of the terms “servants” and “slaves” in his other books.
  • The citation does not offer an independent linguistic analysis of the verse’s terms, nor does it state a relationship of synonymy or non-synonymy with other Qur’anic terms.
  • The inference from the verses of Ta-Ha 74–75 and Yunus 99 is part of Shahrur’s construction in the cited passage, but it is not the subject of this Qur’anic page except insofar as it supports his argument concerning choice.

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Brief reading

He makes it a basis for rejecting servitude to God in the sense of slavery and for affirming that the human being was created free for voluntary worship.

Axes

  • Faith-related
  • Human and ethical
  • Free servitude: 2

Its place in the network of concepts

It grounds the idea of human freedom within the meaning of worship.

The verse’s role in the argument

  • Foundational: 1

Instances of use

  • Islam and Faith, p. 108: He makes it a basis for rejecting servitude to God in the sense of slavery and affirming that the human being was created free for voluntary worship.
    • Concept: Free servitude
    • Function of the verse here: Foundational
    • Textual citation: «{AND I DID NOT CREATE JINN AND HUMANKIND EXCEPT TO WORSHIP ME * I DO NOT SEEK PROVISION FROM THEM… } (Al-Dhariyat 56–57).»

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas