An-Nur 31

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This verse recurs in Shahrur’s project because it is one of the places most closely tied to reading words in their exact meaning, and to understanding concealment, adornment, and modesty from within the wording itself. It is central for him because it reveals the position of woman, the body, and dress within a specific linguistic context.

The verse as cited

And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their private parts…

Brief reading

Shahrur reads the verse as a statement of the limits of concealment and appearance in a specific social context, not as a fixed formula for hijab as it settled in jurisprudence. He relies on distinguishing the khimar, the pockets/openings, adornment, and women, so that the meaning becomes closer to the structure of the text and its context.

Axes

  • Human and ethical
  • Linguistic and semantic
  • Legislative

Associated concepts

  • Dress: 3
  • Domestic service: 2
  • Adornment: 2
  • Women: 2
  • Pockets/openings: 2
  • Khimar: 2
  • Guarding the private parts: 1
  • Husband: 1
  • Concealment: 1
  • Nakedness: 1

Its place in the network of concepts

The verse is connected to a network that includes dress, adornment, pockets/openings, khimar, nakedness, and domestic service. It is central because it allows him to reorder the meaning between concealment, modesty, and social significance.

The role of the verse in the argument

  • Foundational: 5
  • Support: 3
  • Distinction: 3
  • Critique of the tradition: 1

Summary of its presence in the atlas

  • Its presence revolves around dress and adornment.
  • He links it to distinguishing the khimar and the pockets/openings.
  • It is used to reorder the meaning of concealment.

Pages in the atlas that refer to this verse

These links gather the pages that rely on the verse or make it part of the argument within the atlas.

Places of use

  • Islam and Faith, p. 220: He joins it to the previous verse to affirm that guarding the private parts includes males and females alike.
    • Concept: guarding the private parts
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual witness: «- {And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their private parts…} (al-Nur 31).»
  • The State and Society, p. 267: He understands it within the category of domestic service, attached to the household in order to remove embarrassment, not within the sexual permissibility that jurisprudence links to slavery.
    • Concept: domestic service
    • Function of the verse here: foundational
    • Textual witness: «… when Islam came, God forbade the believers from that … “and what their right hands possess”»
    • Counter-traditional reading: slaves / sexual permissibility
  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 498: He cites it among examples of adornment in order to build the meaning of adornment as something desired and acquired within the social context.
    • Concept: adornment
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual witness: «And His saying: {.. and not to display their adornment}. (al-Nur 31)»
  • The Book and the Qur’an, p. 503: He disagrees with the jurists and takes “their women” to mean later-arriving males among the mahrams, such as grandchildren and the like.
    • Concept: women
    • Function of the verse here: critique of the tradition
    • Textual witness: «So His saying in Surah al-Nur regarding a woman’s adornment: {Or their women} does not mean females, as the jurists held … rather, the intended meaning is the later-arriving males with respect to the woman»
    • Counter-traditional reading: the jurists interpreted it as females
  • Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 29: He makes it evidence that the minimum in a woman’s dress is covering the pockets/openings, and whatever exceeds that is left to her judgment and the custom of her society.
    • Concept: dress
    • Function of the verse here: foundational
    • Textual witness: «* [And tell the believing women … and let them draw their khimars over their juyub …] (al-Nur 31). … He added—exalted is He—covering the pockets/openings to a man’s dress»
    • Counter-traditional reading: he opposes the inherited conception of hijab as a fixed, complete legal dress
  • Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 294: He interprets the pockets/openings as places in the human body, some visible and some hidden, and makes the verse the basis for distinguishing the woman’s hidden adornment.
    • Concept: pockets/openings
    • Function of the verse here: foundational
    • Textual witness: «And it came in His saying—Most High—: {And not to display their adornment …} (al-Nur 31).»
  • A Contemporary Guide to Reading the Wise Revelation, pp. 65-66: He explains the pockets/openings as places in the body, some visible and some concealed, and he applies the verse specifically to the woman’s hidden pockets/openings.
    • Concept: pockets/openings
    • Function of the verse here: foundational
    • Textual witness: «It came in His saying, Most High: { … and let them draw their khimars over their juyub … } (al-Nur 31).»
  • Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, pp. 248-249: He uses it to argue that the social context requires the word “husbands/men of maintenance” (ba‘ula) rather than spousal relation, because the ba‘l is the provider and is not necessarily associated with sex.
    • Concept: husband/ba‘l
    • Function of the verse here: support
    • Textual witness: «As for when he speaks about adornment, he mentions the husbands: {And not to display their adornment except to their ba‘uls}»
  • Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 288: He makes it the basis of his discussion of women’s dress, then interprets its expressions clause by clause as a minimum limit for concealment.
    • Concept: dress
    • Function of the verse here: foundational
    • Textual witness: «He said regarding the woman: { And tell the believing women to lower their gaze… } (al-Nur 31)»
  • Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 290: He understands it to mean that the khimar is a covering broader than the woman’s head, and that what is required is the covering of the pockets/openings as the hidden adornment.
    • Concept: khimar
    • Function of the verse here: distinction
    • Textual witness: «{ And let them draw their khimars over their juyub }»
    • Counter-traditional reading: restricting the khimar to a head covering
  • Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 295: He interprets it as including men who have no sexual motive, such as doctors and the like, not merely the incapacitated or the insane.
    • Concept: concealment
    • Function of the verse here: distinction
    • Textual witness: «{ Or male attendants who have no need/desire among men } (al-Nur 31)»
  • Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 295: He uses it to connect the concept of nakedness to changing social modesty, not to a fixed lawful/unlawful ruling.
    • Concept: nakedness
    • Function of the verse here: distinction
    • Textual witness: «{ Or children who have not yet become aware of women’s nakedness } (al-Nur 31)»

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

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