What Is Meant, Briefly

The claim indicates that the appearance of entities in the world is not prior to God’s knowledge of them; rather, they are first known to God and then appear in the world. Based on the available evidence, this page does not determine how this appearance occurs or offer a complete theory of creation.

What Is Attributed to Shahrur

A page associated with the seventh episode conveys this summary: that «كل الموجودات كانت أولًا في علم الله قبل أن تظهر في العالم» (“all entities were first in God’s knowledge before they appeared in the world”), and that divine knowledge precedes material existence. However, this account is an unverified paraphrase, not a verbatim quotation from the episode.

Atlas Explanation

The word «سابق» (“prior”) on this page establishes an order in the formulation of the claim: divine knowledge comes before the appearance of entities in the world. This explanation must not be turned into a statement about the nature of divine knowledge or the mechanism of creation unless the source provides an explicit text.

Composite Conclusion

No composite conclusion is added at this stage, because the evidence provides neither a verbatim text nor sufficient context to expand the claim.

Open Question and Source Limits

Did Shahrur say that «الكون في علم الله دالًّا بدون مدلولات» (“the universe is, in God’s knowledge, a signifier without signifieds”)? And did he connect the priority of knowledge to the denial or affirmation of natural causality within the world? The source bundle does not settle this. It is necessary to return to the seventh episode, then examine the possible connection with The Book and the Qur’an and The Mother of the Book and Its Elaboration in their original texts.