This axis brings together 1 instance of the use of this verse in the books of Muhammad Shahrur, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
Text of the Verse as Cited
And We will surely test you until We know the fighters among you and the patient, and We test your accounts
Reader’s Answer
Question
Where does Shahrur place Muhammad 31 in his argument, and what distinction does he draw from it?
Shahrur places the verse within his discussion of the events of the military campaigns that took place in the time of the Messenger and the Companions. In his reading, he takes their description as “accounts” to indicate that they were events present to the first addressees; for later readers, he then regards them as Muhammadan narratives, distinguishing them from the verses of rulings, which he classifies under the messengerhood.
Shahrur reads Muhammad 31 in the context of events that occurred with the Messenger and the Companions, linking the mention of the fighters and the patient to this context. Shahrur distinguishes between accounts connected to events present to their witnesses, which later become Muhammadan narratives, and verses of rulings, which he considers part of the messengerhood; he employs this distinction to separate the verses of military campaigns from legislation. Shahrur uses this separation to address what he sees as a contradiction between the verses of military campaigns and verses such as the denial of compulsion in religion, without resorting to abrogation.
Citation and Location
The Book and the Qur’an — p. 85.
Limits of the Reading
- This entry documents Shahrur’s reading and its argumentative function; it does not establish the correctness of this division or its interpretive necessity.
- The citation does not provide an independent general definition of the terms “tidings” and “accounts” beyond the example and context mentioned.
- The citation does not establish a relationship between the verse and other passages merely on the basis of verbal similarity.
Continue From Here
Brief Reading
He cites it to affirm that discussion of the military campaigns of the Prophet and his companions belongs to the category of factual accounts for those who witnessed them.
Axes
- Narrative and historical
- Political and social
Related Concepts
- Present accounts: 2
Its Place in the Conceptual Network
It places the prophetic event within the framework of lived historical account.
Role of the Verse in the Argument
- Support: 1
Instances of Use
- The Book and the Qur’an, p. 85: He cites it to affirm that discussion of the military campaigns of the Prophet and his companions belongs to the category of factual accounts for those who witnessed them.
- Concept: Present accounts
- Function of the verse here: Support
- Textual citation: “… God Most High said: {And We will surely test you … and We test your accounts}”
Related Books
This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.