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.
The Text of the Verse as Cited
“Indeed, I have vowed a fast to the Most Merciful, so I will not speak today to any human being.”
Reader’s Answer
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur read the Almighty’s statement, “Indeed, I have vowed a fast to the Most Merciful, so I will not speak today to any human being,” and what does he infer from it about fasting?
Shahrur employs the verse as evidence that fasting was not a ritual newly introduced with Islam, but was known among earlier communities. He defines its meaning in Mary’s context as a vow to refrain from speech: “so I will not speak today to any human being.” He then distinguishes this fast attributed to the time of Mary and Christ from the fasting later known among Christians. This is an interpretation Shahrur explicitly states in the documented passage; for him, the verse is not evidence that all forms of fasting in every religious law consisted of refraining from speech.
Shahrur cites the verse as evidence that fasting was known among earlier communities before the revelation of the Qur’an, describing it as one of the preceding devotional rites. From Mary’s vow in the verse, Shahrur understands fasting in the time of Mary and Christ to have been refraining from speech, relying on her words: “so I will not speak today to any human being.” Shahrur distinguishes Mary’s fast, as abstention from speech, from “their known fasting,” which he says Christians were later charged with observing.
Citation and Location
The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna — p. 98.
Limits of the Reading
- The citation establishes how Shahrur employs the verse in his book, but does not by itself settle the history of fasting practices in different religious communities.
- The verse mentions Mary’s vow and her refraining from speech on that day; extending this description to “the fasting of the time of Christ and his mother” is Shahrur’s explicitly stated interpretive formulation in the citation.
- The excerpt does not establish that Shahrur makes silence a general definition of Qur’anic or Islamic fasting; his discussion here is restricted to Mary’s context.
- The other citation from Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism cites the verse in a different context related to his discussion of “the Most Merciful”; it should therefore not be treated as evidence for the meaning of fasting merely because it mentions the same verse.
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Brief Reading
The verse is cited to show that fasting predates Islam and to indicate that Mary’s fast consisted of refraining from speech.
Axes
- Faith-related
- Narrative and historical
Related Concepts
- Fasting: 2
- Fasting for the Most Merciful: 2
- Refraining from speech: 1
Its Place in the Conceptual Network
It is connected to the history of fasting and to the meaning of vows and silence in the context of faith.
The Verse’s Role in the Argument
- Support: 2
Instances of Use
- The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna, p. 98: He cites it to establish that fasting was known before Islam and that, in Mary’s case, it consisted of refraining from speech.
- Concept: fasting
- Function of the verse here: support
- Textual citation: “{… Then, should you see any human being… ‘Indeed, I have vowed a fast to the Most Merciful, so I will not speak today to any human being.’} Maryam 26.”
- Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 34: He uses it to show that the vow and silence are directed to “the Most Merciful” within his particular framework concerning the meanings of lordship.
- Concept: fasting for the Most Merciful
- Function of the verse here: support
- Textual citation: “{So eat and drink … and say, ‘Indeed, I have vowed a fast to the Most Merciful’ …} (Maryam 26).”
Related Books
- The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna
- Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism
This page is presented within the general atlas-building methodology.