The Question
How does Shahrur criticize inherited jurisprudence and interpretation without making a break with heritage an end in itself?
The Idea in the Atlas
This axis holds that heritage is a historical effort and is not equivalent to the text. Shahrur therefore criticizes the occasions of revelation, abrogating and abrogated verses, and heritage jurisprudence when they become an authority that predetermines the meaning of the Revelation, and he calls for reopening reading in light of language, knowledge, and the contemporary context.
Quick Entry Points
- Principles of jurisprudence and critique of heritage jurisprudence
- Critique of the tools of interpretive and juristic heritage
- Turning heritage into an authority that closes reading and supports despotism
- The Qur’an in Contemporary Thought
- Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence
- Jurisprudence
- Occasions of revelation
- The abrogating and abrogated
- Analogy
- Consensus
Questions for Reading
- When is heritage a source of illumination, and when does it become a constraint?
- How does Shahrur criticize the occasions of revelation and the abrogating and abrogated?
- What is the difference between critiquing jurisprudence and denying the need for jurisprudence?
- Does contemporary reading produce a new heritage that later needs critique?