Al-Mujadila 1

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This entry gathers one instance of the use of this verse in Muhammad Shahrur’s books and explains why the verse uses “argues with you” and “your dialogue” in the same scene.

The Verse as Cited

God has certainly heard the words of the woman who argues with you concerning her husband and complains to God; and God hears your dialogue.

A Brief Reading

In Shahrur’s reading, argumentation is speech that takes place between a position and an opposing position, whereas dialogue does not require one party to occupy a position opposed to the other. He therefore reads the woman’s situation from two angles: she was arguing concerning her husband because her case involved an opposing position related to her situation with him, but she was in dialogue with the Prophet because she was presenting her complaint to him and was not in an opposing position toward him.

Thus, the two words are not synonymous for him, even though they occur in the same verse: the difference in wording reveals the difference in the woman’s relationship to each party in the scene.

What Is the Evidence for This Understanding?

Shahrur explains the point of difference by saying: “The woman was in an opposing position with respect to her husband, but she was not in an opposing position with the Prophet”; he then connects the first aspect to “argues with you” and the second to “your dialogue.”

This is an explanation of Shahrur’s position in The Book and the Qur’an, p. 277, and not a claim that this distinction is agreed upon by linguists or exegetes.

Axes

  • Linguistic and semantic
  • Methodological
  • Argumentation: 2
  • Dialogue: 1
  • Distinguishing between terms: 1

Its Place in the Conceptual Network

It serves to delimit terminology within the linguistic reading of the text.

The Verse’s Role in the Argument

  • Distinction: 1

Contexts of Use

  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 277: He distinguishes argumentation from dialogue through it, holding that the verse brings them together in a single context.
    • Concept: argumentation
    • Function of the verse here: distinction
    • Textual evidence: “Argumentation is not dialogue”; in his explanation, the woman was in an opposing position concerning her husband but was not in an opposing position toward the Prophet.
    • Limit of the reading: This distinction is part of Shahrur’s semantic construction, and the page does not present it as a linguistic or exegetical consensus.

This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.

Graph View

Muhammad Shahrur Atlas