This locus brings together 2 instances in which 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
Praise be to God, who sent down the Book to His servant and did not place in it any crookedness
Reader’s response
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur employ God’s saying, “Praise be to God, who sent down the Book to His servant,” in his definition of the Book?
Within his own special terminology, Shahrur employs the verse to indicate that “the Book” is the مجموع of the subjects contained in the codex between its two covers. He therefore regards the attribution of sending down to “the Book” as encompassing the components he calls the Qur’an, the Mother of the Book, the Detailed Exposition of the Book, and the Seven Oft-Repeated. This is a proposition within his conceptual construction, rather than a meaning imposed by the verse alone.
Shahrur explicitly states that Al-Kahf 1 mentions the sending down of the entire Book, and he takes this comprehensiveness to include the Qur’an, the Mother of the Book, the Detailed Exposition of the Book, and the Seven Oft-Repeated.
Citation and location
The Book and the Qur’an — p. 145.
Limits of the reading
- The citation establishes how Shahrur uses the verse and his terminological definition of the Book; it does not provide independent proof of the validity of this definition.
- This citation does not address the interpretation of the verse’s other words, such as “crookedness,” nor does it make them a direct basis for Shahrur’s divisions.
- The most appropriate presentation is to attribute this connection explicitly to Shahrur and to avoid presenting it as the verse’s sole or necessary meaning.
Continue from here
Brief reading
The verse is made the basis for defining the Book as the collection of revealed subjects contained between the covers of the codex, rather than as a separate part of the text.
Axes
- Methodological
- Linguistic and semantic
Related concepts
- the Book: 3
- sending down: 1
- the Qur’an: 1
- the Mother of the Book: 1
- the Detailed Exposition of the Book: 1
- the Seven Oft-Repeated: 1
Its place in the network of concepts
It is connected to the concept of the Book as a comprehensive structure that includes the Qur’an and its components.
The verse’s role in the argument
- Support: 1
- Foundation: 1
Instances of use
- The Book and the Qur’an, p. 145: He cites it as evidence that sending down encompasses the entire Book, thereby including within it the Qur’an, the Mother of the Book, the Detailed Exposition of the Book, and the Seven Oft-Repeated.
- Concept: the Book
- Function of the verse here: Support
- Textual citation: “{Praise be to God, who sent down the Book to His servant and did not place in it any crookedness} (Al-Kahf 1).”
- The Book and the Qur’an, p. 156: He uses it to define the Book as the collection of subjects between the covers of the codex, in terms of its being sent down.
- Concept: the Book
- Function of the verse here: Foundation
- Textual citation: “And since the Book is the collection of subjects found between the covers of the codex … He summarized its sending down in His saying.”
Related books
This page is presented within the general atlas-building methodology.