What is meant
Shahrur sees slavery not as a fixed system, but as a historical phenomenon founded on coercion and enslavement He holds that the Wise Revelation established a gradual mechanism for abolishing it, and that “those whom your right hands possess” was a temporary transitional alternative on the path of dismantling He links this to a contemporary understanding of equality and freedom
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: Historical
- Argument movement: It treats slavery as a historical phenomenon that can be abolished, not as a fixed system.
- Key terms: slavery, those whom your right hands possess, freedom, equality.
- Degree of centrality: Central.
This atom establishes a historical reading of slavery, and understands those whom your right hands possess as a transitional stage, thereby linking legal understanding to the aim of the gradual dismantling of enslavement.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: The State and Society
- Legislation, Limits, and Prohibition
- Freedom
- Slavery and those whom your right hands possess are two historical phenomena that can be dismantled
Grounding
- Supporting text: “Those whom your right hands possess: a transitional alternative to slavery, based on contract between free persons. Slavery: a historical system of coercion and enslavement; Shahrur holds that the Wise Revelation established a mechanism for its abolition.”
Place of grounding in the book
- Book: The State and Society.
- Location: Within the final section of the book, in the discussion of freedom and those whom your right hands possess
- Type of grounding: Close evidence.
- Marker that helps verification: abolished the age of slavery
- Reading note: This location is suitable as evidence because it mentions the historical abolition of slavery and links it to an alternative based on contracts between free persons.
Degree of documentation
- Level: Synthetically documented
- Meaning of the level: The atom relies on more than one witness or on a clear synthesis of closely related expressions.
- Reason for classification: The passages describe slavery as a historical system and mention a mechanism for abolishing it.
- Limits of reading: The formulation above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the supporting text is transmitted in full.
Its function in the book
Its function here is declarative; it establishes a conclusion on which what follows in the argument depends.
Related to
Editorial note
It is preferable to link it to the atoms of freedom and equality to explain the logic of historical transition.