This axis brings together 2 instances 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
There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.
Reader’s Answer
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur employ God’s saying, “There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing,” in discussing the possibility of knowing God and avoiding anthropomorphism?
Shahrur employs the verse to argue that God has an existence outside human consciousness and that, therefore, no human conception of Him can correspond to His existence as it is. He thus sets the verse against anthropomorphic conceptions that project a human image or determination onto God.
Shahrur cites Al-Shura 11 as evidence that God has an existence outside human consciousness and that human beings cannot apprehend this existence as it is. He understands the verse to mean that any human conception of God cannot correspond to His existence, and he presents anthropomorphism as a historical trajectory in humanity’s religious conceptions.
Citation and Location
The Qur’an in Contemporary Thought — p. 36.
Limits of the Reading
- The strongest direct inference here is that the human conception does not correspond to God’s existence, not every theological conclusion that may be built around transcendence.
- Mere mention of the verse in the context of criticizing the Mu‘tazilites is insufficient to attribute the negation of attributes to Shahrur himself.
- The phrase “stripping away the human image” summarizes the direction of the reading, but the citation specifically states the non-correspondence of human conception and critiques the anthropomorphic conception.
Continue from Here
Brief Reading
Shahrur uses it to ground the rejection of anthropomorphism of God, making transcendence rest on stripping conception of human form.
Axes
- Faith-based
- Methodological
Related Concepts
- Abstraction: 2
- Transcendence: 2
Its Place in the Network of Concepts
It is connected to the concept of transcendence as going beyond assimilation.
The Verse’s Role in the Argument
- Grounding: 1
- Critique of heritage: 1
Instances of Use
- The Qur’an in Contemporary Thought, p. 36: He makes it a basis for rejecting anthropomorphism of God and for affirming that no human conception corresponds to His existence.
- Concept: Abstraction
- Function of the verse here: Grounding
- Textual citation: “{… There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing} (Al-Shura 11)”
- Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 29: He places it among the foundations of the theologians who deny the attributes, in order to show how it led them to transcendence and to the negation of conception of God.
- Concept: Transcendence
- Function of the verse here: Critique of heritage
- Textual citation: “{ There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing } (Al-Shura 11).”
- Corresponding traditional reading: Proponents of transcendence
Related Books
This page is presented within the general methodology for building the atlas.