The Qur’an Is Not Understood Through Pure Materialism
Editorial verification status: This claim atom is extracted from a source with explanatory audio and video, and has now been linked to the closest books within Shahrur’s project at the book level. For precise academic quotation, consult the original book and the original episode together.
Formulation of the claim
Shahrur rejects the direct material understanding of expressions such as “We sent down this Qur’an upon a mountain.”
Explanation
He says that what is meant is not placing physical copies of the muṣḥafs on a mountain, but the entry of the discourse into the mountain’s faculties of understanding, if the mountain were morally responsible. In this way he opposes the reading that makes “sending down” merely a physical movement. He also affirms that the mountain is not morally responsible, and that the awe in the verse is linked to perception and knowledge, not to matter.
The idea here is that the Qur’anic meaning is read at the level of consciousness, not at the level of physical transfer.
Its place in the episode’s argument
This claim helps free the reading from literalism that prevents an understanding of the cognitive dimensions of the Qur’anic discourse.
Limits of the claim
It does not entirely deny a sensory implication, but it refuses to reduce the verse to it.
Brief witness
“If this Qur’an entered the faculties of understanding of the mountain… if We sent it down materially, that is a materialist understanding”
Nearby links
- Shahrur - The Qur’an
- Shahrur - The Decisive
- Shahrur - The Book and the Qur’an