This axis brings together 1 locus where this verse is used in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
Text of the Verse as Cited
He is the One who sent His messenger with guidance and the religion of truth, that He may make it prevail over all religion; and God suffices as a witness.
Reader’s Answer
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur employ Qur’an 48:28 in his conception of religion and religious communities?
Shahrur employs the verse to object to the notion that the messengers brought multiple, distinct divine religions. He presents the “religion of truth” as a constituent of the Islamic religion and links it to objective existence and its laws; the various religious communities, meanwhile, he regards as historical stages of human interaction with revelation, rather than as separate revealed religions.
Shahrur rejects the understanding of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as different religions brought by the messengers, maintaining that what humanity has known are evolutionary stages of the Islamic religion, culminating in the form brought by Muhammad. Shahrur interprets the “religion of truth” as concerning objective existence outside the human self—that is, the universe and the general laws governing it—and makes it one of the constituents of the Islamic religion.
Citation and Location
the Book and the Qur’an — p. 534.
Limits of the Reading
- The citation establishes this use in the context of Shahrur’s definition of “truth,” but it is excerpted before he completes his explanation of the laws governing objective existence.
- The citation alone does not explain in detail how “that He may make it prevail over all religion” is realized in history, politics, or in relation to non-Muslims.
- The description of a “single historical horizon” is an interpretive summary of Shahrur’s statements about evolutionary stages, not an independent phrase he states verbatim.
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Brief Reading
The verse is used to affirm a single historical horizon based on the emergence of the religion of truth over all religious communities.
Axes
- Faith-related
- Narrative and historical
Related Concepts
- Religion of truth: 2
Place in the Conceptual Network
It is connected to the idea of religion’s historical extension in its overall course.
Role of the Verse in the Argument
- Support: 1
Usage Loci
- the Book and the Qur’an, p. 534: He reiterates through it the meaning of making the religion of truth prevail over all religious communities, as a single historical horizon for religion.
- Concept: religion of truth
- Function of the verse here: support
- Textual citation: “{He is the One who sent His messenger with guidance and the religion of truth, that He may make it prevail over all religions; and God suffices as a witness}”
Related Books
This page is presented within the general atlas-building methodology.