Al-Zumar 21

3 min read

This node gathers 4 instances of Muhammad Shahrur’s use of this verse in his books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

The verse as cited

Do you not see that God sends down water from the sky, then He causes it to flow as springs in the earth …

Brief reading

Shahrur presents it as an example of how the Qur’an opens the door to scientific knowledge in nature instead of limiting itself to inherited readings.

Axes

  • Methodological
  • Linguistic and semantic
  • Narrative and historical

Associated concepts

  • Scientific knowledge: 2
  • Natural change: 2
  • Inference: 2
  • Natural sciences: 2

Its place in the conceptual network

It is linked to the method of inference and the domain of natural science in reading the text.

The verse’s role in the argument

  • Example: 4

Uses

  • Islam and Human, p. 40: He presents it as an example of the Qur’an’s containing knowledge about groundwater and plants, and of the tradition’s failure to understand it.
    • Concept: Scientific knowledge
    • Function of the verse here: Example
    • Textual evidence: «- { Do you not see that God sends down water from the sky … } (Al-Zumar 21)»
  • Islam and Human, p. 42: He cites it together with the verse of creation to affirm that the Qur’anic text encourages understanding natural transformations with a scientific mindset.
    • Concept: Natural change
    • Function of the verse here: Example
    • Textual evidence: «- { Do you not see that God sends down water from the sky … } (Al-Zumar 21)»
  • The State and Society, p. 33: He uses it as an example of deductive inference from the general to the specific within his epistemological method.
    • Concept: Inference
    • Function of the verse here: Example
    • Textual evidence: «{Do you not see that God sends down water from the sky and causes it to flow as springs…} (Al-Zumar 21),»
  • The State and Society, pp. 153-154: He makes it an example of how the verse opens the door to groundwater science and plant sciences, and of how the tradition did not make scientific use of it properly.
    • Concept: Natural sciences
    • Function of the verse here: Example
    • Textual evidence: «{Do you not see that God sends down water from the sky…} (Al-Zumar 21)»
    • Counterpart in the traditional reading: tradition contains only a few pages about them, most of them wrong.

This page is presented within the general method of building the atlas.

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas