This axis brings together 1 instance of the use of this verse in the books of Muhammad Shahrur, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
Text of the Verse as Cited
Whoever desires the harvest of the Hereafter, We increase for him his harvest; and whoever desires the harvest of this world, We give him some of it, but he will have no share in the Hereafter.
Reader’s Answer
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur employ Al-Shura 20 in interpreting the meaning of “harvest”?
Shahrur employs the verse to support a linguistic reading in which “harvest” is not a term for agriculture alone, but rather that which is acquired and increases as the fruit of labor. Accordingly, he reads the “harvest of the Hereafter” and the “harvest of this world” as pertaining to human material benefits and incentives in the two realms. This is an interpretation attributed to him in the cited passage, not a statement of the verse’s sole or definitive meaning.
Shahrur maintains that harvest has two semantic roots: gathering and acquisition, and growth and increase. On this basis, he defines harvest as what exceeds the amount placed in the ground as seed—that is, the fruit or surplus of labor in the agricultural example. Shahrur cites Al-Shura 20 to extend this meaning to the “harvest of this world” and the “harvest of the Hereafter,” making them a concept of human material benefits and incentives in this world and the Hereafter.
Citation and Location
The State and Society — p. 181.
Limits of the Reading
- The cited passage establishes Shahrur’s use of the verse in constructing this meaning; it does not establish that this interpretation is the agreed-upon linguistic or exegetical meaning of the verse.
- The phrase “material incentives and benefits” is Shahrur’s formulation within his line of argument; the cited passage does not provide a comparison with other exegetical interpretations or independent evidence favoring this specification.
- The quoted text ends at “here came the har…”; therefore, no later explanation of the context or additional detail should be attributed to Shahrur on the basis of this excerpt.
- No further relationship should be inferred from the similarity of the word “harvest” in other verses unless direct evidence links it to this verse or to this claim.
Continue From Here
Brief Reading
The verse expands the meaning of harvest to include material incentives and benefits in this world and the Hereafter, as a form of acquisition.
Axes
- Political and social
- Legislative
Related Concepts
- Material incentives: 2
Place in the Conceptual Network
It is connected to the concept of acquisition within a social conception of human interests.
Role of the Verse in the Argument
- Support: 1
Instances of Use
- The State and Society, p. 181: It expands the meaning of harvest to include material incentives and benefits in this world and the Hereafter, as a form of acquisition.
- Concept: Material incentives
- Function of the verse here: Support
- Textual citation: “From this meaning, too, came the concept of material benefits and incentives for human beings in this world and the Hereafter, in His—Exalted is He—saying: {Whoever desires the harvest of the Hereafter …} (Al-Shura 20)”
Related Books
This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.