This axis gathers 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
By the Qur’an, possessed of the Reminder
Reader’s Answer
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur employ God’s saying, “By the Qur’an, possessed of the Reminder,” in interpreting the relationship of the “Reminder” to the Qur’an?
Shahrur employs the verse to read the construction “possessed of the Reminder” as a description of the Qur’an: for him, the Qur’an is what is described, and the “Reminder” is an attribute of it, not the name of an entity independent of it. He then defines this attribute as the spoken Arabic linguistic form through which the Qur’an came to circulate and be remembered among people.
In the verse, Shahrur considers “the Qur’an” to be the described noun and “the Reminder” to be its attribute, relying on the meaning of dhū as “possessor of”; therefore, he does not treat the Reminder here as an identity independent of the Qur’an. Shahrur connects the attribute of “the Reminder” to the spoken linguistic form by which the Qur’an was made Arabic, and regards it as the form through which it is recited and remembered among people.
Citation and Location
The Book and the Qur’an — p. 49.
Limits of the Reading
- This presents Shahrur’s reading as it appears in the two cited passages; it is not a statement of the verse’s meaning as agreed upon in exegesis or linguistics.
- The citation establishes that Shahrur makes the “Reminder” an attribute of the Qur’an and connects it to sound and language; however, by itself it is insufficient to establish every detail of his theory concerning the Preserved Tablet, the Clear Imam, or the sequence of making and sending down.
- Describing the “Reminder” as the spoken form is a Shahrurian inference based on linking the verse to the verses of making and sending down; it is not an uncontested indication of the wording of the verse alone.
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Brief Reading
He makes it a basis for maintaining that the Reminder is an attribute of the Qur’an, not an independent identity, and that the revealed form is the described Reminder.
Axes
- Methodological
- Linguistic and semantic
Related Concepts
- the Reminder: 3
Its Place in the Conceptual Network
It serves his conceptual construction of the relationship between the Qur’an and the Reminder within a reading of the text’s linguistic form.
The Verse’s Role in the Argument
- Foundational: 1
- Supportive: 1
Instances of Use
- The Book and the Qur’an, p. 49: Through it, he maintains that the Reminder is an attribute of the Qur’an, not an identity independent of it, and that the Qur’an is the described noun while the Reminder is the linguistic attribute.
- Concept: the Reminder
- Function of the verse here: Foundational
- Textual citation: “{Ṣād. By the Qur’an, possessed of the Reminder} (Ṣād 1)”
- The Book and the Qur’an, p. 133: He makes it evidence that the spoken Arabic form that has reached us is the “Reminder” resulting from making and sending down.
- Concept: the Reminder
- Function of the verse here: Supportive
- Textual citation: “God Almighty called it, in His decisive revelation, the Reminder in His saying: {Ṣād. By the Qur’an, possessed of the Reminder} (Ṣād 1).”
Related Books
This page is presented within the general atlas-building methodology.