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 verse text as cited
{“Had your Lord willed, He would have made mankind one community; and they will continue to differ”}
Brief reading
The verse is taken as a basis for proving that difference is a necessary law, and that pluralism is closer to the laws of social life than coercive unity.
Axes
- Political and social
- Methodological
Related concepts
- Pluralism: 2
- Difference: 2
- Laws: 1
- Rejection of coercive unity: 1
Its place in the network of concepts
It is connected to building a social conception that makes difference part of the general order.
The verse’s role in the argument
- Foundation: 1
- Support: 1
Instances of use
- State and Society, p. 298: He cites it to argue that difference is a necessary law, and that faith itself is not meant to become uniformly one by coercion.
- Concept: Pluralism
- Function of the verse here: Foundation
- Textual citation: «The Wise Revelation used this common denominator in His saying – تعالى –: {وَلَوْ شَاءَ رَبُّكَ لَجَعَلَ النَّاسَ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً وَلَا يَزَالُونَ مُخْتَلِفِينَ} (Hud 118), so that we may see the realism of the Qur’an even in faith»
- Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 128: He makes it an affirmation of the law of difference among human beings and of the fact that coercive unity runs against the laws.
- Concept: Difference
- Function of the verse here: Support
- Textual citation: «{ وَلَوْ شَاء رَبُّكَ لَجَعَلَ النَّاسَ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً وَلَا يَزَالُونَ مُخْتَلِفِينَ } (Hud ١١٨),»
Related books
This page is presented within the general method of building the atlas.