The Ornament 3

4 min read

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.

The Text of the Verse as Cited

Indeed, We have made it an Arabic Qur’an so that you may understand

Reader’s Answer

Question

Where does the verse occur, how does Shahrur distinguish between making and sending down in it, and what is its function in his argument concerning the Arabicness and eternity of the Qur’an?

The verse is The Ornament 43:3. Shahrur reads “making” in it as a change in becoming: in his conception, the Qur’an was in a non-Arabic form and then became Arabic. He employs it to object to the eternity of the recited Arabic Qur’anic text, not to establish a general ruling concerning everything connected with the Book.

Shahrur adduces The Ornament 43:3 to argue that “making” is a change in becoming; it follows for him that the Qur’an was non-Arabic in some form and then became Arabic. Shahrur distinguishes between making and sending down: making concerns the Qur’an’s becoming Arabic, whereas he describes sending down as occurring for human comprehension, and notes their concomitance in the Qur’an, with the exception of the Muhammadan narratives according to his classification. The verse’s function in his argument is to reject an understanding of eternity as the eternity of the recited Arabic text; for he holds that this understanding entails attributing Arabic, as a language, to God.

Citation and Location

The Book and the Qur’an — p. 218.

Limits of the Reading

  • The citation establishes this argument within Shahrur’s conception of the Qur’an and the Book, but does not provide an independent proof of the validity of this conception.
  • The citation does not establish that the “Arabicness of the Qur’an” is merely an expressive stage in the general technical sense; what it establishes is his statement that making is a becoming from non-Arabic into Arabic.
  • It is not valid to attribute the page to p. 49 on the basis of the attached citation, because the specified location of the citation is p. 218.
  • The citation does not establish that “making” and “sending down” are synonymous; rather, it explicitly distinguishes the function of each in his presentation.

Continue from Here

Brief Reading

The verse is used to ground the idea that the Arabicness of the Qur’an is a stage in its expressive becoming, and that making here indicates transformation rather than eternity.

Axes

  • Linguistic and semantic
  • Methodological
  • Making: 3
  • Arabicness: 2

Its Place in the Network of Concepts

It is connected to the concepts of making and Arabicness in constructing a reading that makes language part of the process of sending down.

The Verse’s Role in the Argument

  • Foundational: 2
  • Supporting: 1

Instances of Use

  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 49: He uses the verse to establish that the Qur’an passed into an Arabic linguistic form; that is, its Arabicness is a stage in the sending down and not the origin of its truth in itself.
    • Concept: Arabicness
    • Function of the verse here: Foundational
    • Textual citation: “{Indeed, We have made it an Arabic Qur’an} (The Ornament 3)”
  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 133: He makes it the basis of his claim that making is the transformation of the Qur’an into an intelligible Arabic form—that is, a change in becoming rather than creation from nothing.
    • Concept: Making
    • Function of the verse here: Foundational
    • Textual citation: “{Indeed, We have made it an Arabic Qur’an so that you may understand} (The Ornament 3), meaning that it had a prior existence before it became Arabic.”
  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 218: He adduces it to argue that the Arabicness in the Qur’an results from making—that is, from a transformation in becoming, not from linguistic eternity.
    • Concept: Making
    • Function of the verse here: Supporting
    • Textual citation: “By virtue of His saying, exalted be He: {Indeed, We have made it an Arabic Qur’an so that you may understand} (The Ornament 3).”
    • Corresponding traditional reading: The eternity of the Arabic text

This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.

Graph View

Muhammad Shahrur Atlas