Women 90

3 min read

This axis brings together 2 instances of the use of this verse in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

Text of the Verse as Cited

But if they withdraw from you, do not fight you, and offer you peace, then God has not given you any warrant against them.

Reader’s Response

Question

Where does the verse occur, how does Shahrur distinguish between withdrawing from fighting and abstaining from it, and what function does it serve in his argument?

The verse occurs in Women 90. Shahrur distinguishes between withdrawing from fighting, as an acceptable positive stance coupled with an offer of peace, and abstaining from fighting, as an unacceptable negative stance. He makes the verse evidence for the loss of the legitimacy of fighting when the other party withdraws and offers reconciliation and peace, because the act then becomes, in his analysis, killing by one side.

Shahrur cites Women 90 in the context of those who withdraw from fighting, do not fight, and offer peace. He distinguishes between withdrawing from fighting as an acceptable positive stance and abstaining from it as an unacceptable negative stance. Shahrur employs the verse to argue that one party’s withdrawal from fighting together with an offer of reconciliation and peace ends the characterization of the act as fighting between two parties, making its continuation killing by one side, which is prohibited.

Citation and Location

Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism — p. 109.

Limits of the Reading

  • The attached citation is from the book “Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism,” p. 109, not from “The Book and the Qur’an,” p. 280; therefore, the page’s current bibliographic attribution is not established.
  • The citation does not establish a general ruling independent of the two conditions of withdrawal and the offer of peace as formulated by Shahrur.
  • This page does not address parallels between verses or their relations to other passages except insofar as the citation explicitly states them.

Continue from Here

Brief Reading

The verse is taken as a basis for regarding withdrawal and peace as grounds for ending fighting.

Axes

  • Political and social
  • Human and ethical
  • Argumentation: 2
  • Withdrawal from fighting: 2

Its Place in the Network of Concepts

It is connected to the principle of peace and the abandonment of confrontation when peace is chosen.

The Verse’s Role in the Argument

  • Support: 1
  • Foundation: 1

Instances of Use

  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 280: he uses it to affirm the criterion of peace and withdrawal in non-confrontational argumentation.
    • Concept: argumentation
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual citation: “As in His saying, Exalted is He: {Except for those who join a people between whom and you there is a covenant … but if they withdraw from you and do not fight you …} (Women 90).”
  • Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 109: he takes it as a basis for the view that those who withdraw from fighting and offer peace are no longer subject to fighting, and that aggression against them becomes forbidden.
    • Concept: withdrawal from fighting
    • Function of the verse here: foundation
    • Textual citation: “{But if they withdraw from you, do not fight you, and offer you peace, then God has not given you any warrant against them} (Women 90).”

This page is presented within the general methodology for building the atlas.

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas