The Intended Meaning
Shahrur understands polytheism not only as associating partners with God, but as believing that what is changeable is fixed and does not alter For this reason, polytheism is linked to rejecting change and standing against progress, until it turns into injustice toward the self
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: interpretive
- Movement of the argument: reinterprets polytheism as a rejection of change and as illusory constancy.
- Key terms: polytheism, illusory constancy, change, injustice.
- Degree of centrality: secondary.
It expands the meaning of polytheism from confining it to a narrow doctrinal form to a cognitive and behavioral effect, making it a stance resistant to change and productive of rigidity.
Links Helpful for Reading
- Muhammad Shahrur, The State and Society
- History, Evolution, and the Sunnahs
- polytheism
- injustice
- The story of Moses and the righteous servant symbolizes the struggle between knowledge and law
Grounding
- Supporting text: “For him, polytheism and disbelief are linked to illusory constancy and rejection of change; and disbelief here is also understood as an overt hostile act.”
Place of Grounding in the Book
- Book: The State and Society.
- Location: in the early part of the book, within the discussion of the state, justice, and the law of glorification.
- Type of grounding: close attestation.
- Verification cue: illusory claim
- Reading note: This location is suitable as support because the witness describes any claim to justice outside the law as illusory, and it carries a meaning close to the illusory constancy associated with polytheism.
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 witnesses explicitly state the connection between polytheism and illusory constancy.
- Limits of the reading: the wording above is an analytical summary, and is not to be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted verbatim.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is definitional; it establishes a meaning or conceptual distinction that Shahrur relies on in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial Note
This atom offers a symbolic reading of the concept of polytheism.