This hub gathers 2 locations where this verse is used in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, connecting it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
Verse text as cited
{GOD takes the selves at the time of their death, and those that have not died during their sleep; then He keeps back the one for which He has decreed death and sends the other on to an appointed term. Indeed, in that are signs for a people who reflect}
Brief reading
Shahrur cites it to argue that death is a state of taking-over and stillness, and that the self has a non-physical dimension that is taken.
Axes
- Faith-based
- Linguistic and semantic
Related concepts
- Death: 2
- Self: 2
Its place in the conceptual network
It is connected to his distinction between the meaning of death and the meaning of the self within the human structure.
Role of the verse in the argument
- Support: 2
Uses
- The State and Society, p. 99: cited to show that death is a temporary state of stillness resembling sleep, followed by return and life.
- Concept: death
- Function of the verse here: support
- Textual evidence: “This is confirmed for us by His, Exalted be He, saying: {GOD takes the selves at the time of their death …}”
- A Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation, p. 60: cited to show that the self has an informational/psychological dimension that is taken, not merely dying.
- Concept: self
- Function of the verse here: support
- Textual evidence: “From the psychological standpoint it is a set of information … and it is the self that is taken, according to His saying, Exalted be He: {GOD takes the selves at the time of their death …} (al-Zumar 42).”
Related books
This page is presented within the general methodology of atlas construction.