This axis brings together 2 places where this verse is used in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

The verse text as it appears

O Messenger, let not those who hasten into disbelief grieve you … they distort the words from after their places …

Brief reading

Shahrur uses the verse to establish a definition of distortion as shifting the word away from its referent, or changing the meaning while the wording remains.

Axes

  • Linguistic and semantic
  • distorting words: 2
  • distortion of signification: 2
  • wording: 1
  • meaning: 1

Its place in the conceptual network

It enters the network of distortion concepts as a semantic deviation, not only a formal one.

The verse’s role in the argument

  • Foundational: 1
  • Critique of tradition: 1

Places of use

  • The Qur’anic Narrative Vol. 1, p. 54: He makes the verse the basis for his definition of distortion as shifting a word away from its referent or from its place, not merely replacing the text’s words.
    • Concept: distorting words
    • Function of the verse here: Foundational
    • Textual citation: «God تعالى says: {O Messenger … they distort the words from after their places …}»
  • Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 171: He employs it to explain distortion as changing the meaning while keeping the wording itself, and attributes this to later juristic terminologies.
    • Concept: distortion of signification
    • Function of the verse here: Critique of tradition
    • Textual citation: «{… they distort the word from after its places} (al-Ma’idah 41).»

This page is presented within the general method of building the atlas.