This axis gathers 1 instance of this verse’s use in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
The verse text as cited
Ask the town in which we were, and the caravan in which we arrived; indeed, we are surely truthful.
Brief reading
The verse is used as an example of the principle of ellipsis in Arabic, then linked to what is left unsaid in the argument.
Axes
- Methodological
- Linguistic and semantic
Related concepts
- The unsaid: 2
Its place in the network of concepts
It serves to build a mode of reading that relies on what is understood beyond what is uttered.
The verse’s role in the argument
- Example: 1
Instances of use
- The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna, p. 44: Cited to clarify the principle of ellipsis in Arabic, then this is applied to the verse of al-Najm to say that what is left unsaid there is the Wise Revelation, not mere utterance.
- Concept: the unsaid
- Function of the verse here: example
- Textual evidence: «An example of that is His saying تعالى: {وَاسْأَلْ الْقَرْيَةَ الَّتِي كُنَّا فِيهَا وَالْعِيرَ الَّتِي أَقْبَلْنَا فِيهَا وَإِنَّا لَصَادِقُونَ} Yusuf 82. The implicit, unspoken element here is “people of” and “companions of”»
Related books
- The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna
This page is presented within the general method of building the atlas.