This axis gathers 2 instances of the use of this verse in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking them to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
The verse text as cited
Wherever you may be, death will overtake you, even if you are in fortified towers. And if good befalls them, they say, “This is from God”; but if evil befalls them, they say, “This is from you.” Say, “All is from God.” So what is the matter with these people that they can hardly understand any statement?
Brief reading
The verse is interpreted to establish the difference between destiny as an objective existence and voluntary action.
Axes
- Methodological
- Linguistic and semantic
Related concepts
- Destiny: 2
- Death and time: 2
Its place in the network of concepts
It links the concept of destiny to the law of death and temporal universality.
The verse’s role in the argument
- Foundational: 2
Instances of use
- The Book and the Qur’an, p. 118: He interprets it as speaking of an objective existence and necessities such as death, not voluntary behavior, thereby establishing a distinction between destiny and decree.
- Concept: destiny
- Function of the verse here: Foundational
- Textual evidence: «From this point of view we understand His saying تعالى: ١- {أَيْنَمَا تَكُونُوا يُدْرِكُكُمُ الْمَوْتُ…} (النساء ٧٨).»
- Toward a New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 79: He derives from it the implication that death encompasses every time and place as a law that is not constrained by location.
- Concept: death and time
- Function of the verse here: Foundational
- Textual evidence: «As for His saying – تعالى –: { أَيْنَمَا تَكُونُوا يُدْرِكْكُمْ الْمَوْتُ } (النساء ٧٨), we see in it a negation of the limits of time and place»
Related books
This page is presented within the general atlas-building methodology.