al-Ma'ida 45

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This axis gathers 4 places where this verse is used in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

The verse as cited

AND WOUNDS ARE SUBJECT TO RETALIATION … AND WHOEVER DOES NOT JUDGE BY WHAT GOD HAS SENT DOWN, THOSE ARE THE WRONGDOERS

Brief reading

Shahrur invokes the verse to define retaliation as an upper limit in killing and bodily injury within an earlier legislative context.

Axes

  • Legislative
  • Narrative and historical
  • Retaliation: 5

Its place in the network of concepts

It is linked to the comparison between legal systems and to distinguishing historical retaliation from later formulations.

The verse’s role in the argument

  • Support: 2
  • Critique of the tradition: 1
  • Example: 1

Uses

  • The Qur’an in Contemporary Thought, p. 31: He uses it to state that retaliation sets the maximum punishment in killing and injury, while leaving institutional ijtihad in the details.
    • Concept: retaliation
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual evidence: «… {AND WOUNDS ARE SUBJECT TO RETALIATION … AND WHOEVER DOES NOT JUDGE BY WHAT GOD HAS SENT DOWN, THOSE ARE THE WRONGDOERS} (al-Ma’ida 45)»
  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 388: He presents it as a model of a similar Mosaic ruling that remains in the Mother of the Book, and uses it for comparison with its counterparts in the Muhammadan message.
    • Concept: retaliation
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual evidence: «– {AND WE PRESCRIBED FOR THEM THEREIN THAT THE SOUL FOR THE SOUL, AND THE EYE FOR THE EYE …} (al-Ma’ida 45)»
  • Drying Up the Springs of Terrorism, pp. 19-20: He interprets it as an earlier legislation among the Children of Israel that combines more than one punishment, and uses it to define retaliation as a historical topic, not an absolute individual punishment.
    • Concept: retaliation
    • Function of the verse here: critique of the tradition
    • Textual evidence: «{AND WE PRESCRIBED FOR THEM THEREIN THAT THE SOUL FOR THE SOUL …} (al-Ma’ida 45)»
    • Counter-traditional reading: disagrees with a reading that makes retaliation a general ruling for all times
  • Drying Up the Springs of Terrorism, p. 53: He counts it as an earlier Torah-based ruling and compares it with the Muhammadan legislation, which takes account of mitigation and the expansion of the concept of the soul.
    • Concept: retaliation
    • Function of the verse here: example
    • Textual evidence: «{AND WE PRESCRIBED FOR THEM THEREIN THAT THE SOUL FOR THE SOUL …} (al-Ma’ida 45).»

This page is presented within the general methodology of atlas construction.

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas