Jonah 24

This locus gathers 4 places where this verse is used in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

The verse text as cited

Until, when the earth has taken on its adornment and is embellished, and its people think that they are able to control it, Our command comes to it by night or by day, and We make it a field mown down, as though it had not flourished the day before. Thus do We explain the signs for a people who reflect.

Brief reading

Shahrur uses the verse as an example of the arrogance of power when a society reaches the height of adornment and then imagines that it has attained perfection.

Loci

• political and social
• human and ethical
• linguistic and semantic

Related concepts

• adornment: 3
• end of monism: 2
• the coming of the Hour: 2

Its place in the network of concepts

It is connected to the law of civilizational change and to the idea of adornment as that which people find pleasing.

The verse’s role in the argument

• support: 2
• example: 2

Places of use

• State and Society, p. 215: He cites the verse to clarify that a society’s reaching the peak of power and knowledge may precede its downfall if its people imagine absolute power, and he links this to the law of civilizational change.
  • concept: end of monism
  • function of the verse here: support
  • textual witness: «{… وَظَنَّ أَهْلُهَا أَنَّهُمْ قَادِرُونَ عَلَيْهَا أَتَاهَا أَمْرُنَا …} (Jonah 24).»
• The Book and the Qur’an, p. 326: He uses it as an example of the moment of human arrogance when a person thinks that he has reached full capability, and then the divine command comes.
  • concept: the coming of the Hour
  • function of the verse here: example
  • textual witness: «{.. حَتَّى إِذَا أَخَذَتِ الْأَرْضُ زُخْرُفَهَا وَارْيَنتَ وَظَنَّ أَهْلُهَا أَنْهُمْ قَادِرُونَ عَلَيْهَا أَتَاهَا أَمْرُنَا لَيْلًا أَوْ نَهَارًا..} (Jonah 24).»
• The Book and the Qur’an, p. 498: He uses it to explain that adornment, for him, means what people desire and find pleasing, not merely the narrow sensory meaning.
  • concept: adornment
  • function of the verse here: support
  • textual witness: «As in His saying تعالى {.. حَتَّى إِذَا أَخَذَتِ الْأَرْضُ زُخْرُفَهَا وَازَّيَّنَتْ}. (Jonah 24)»
• Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 290: He cites it to support the idea of cosmic/spatial adornment and that adornment is not merely jewelry and clothing.
  • concept: adornment
  • function of the verse here: example
  • textual witness: «{ حَتَّى إِذَا أَخَذَتِ الْأَرْضُ زُخْرُفُهَا وَازَّيَّنَتْ } (Jonah 34)»

Related books

• State and Society
• The Book and the Qur’an
• Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence

This page is presented within the general method of atlas construction.