The Statement Attributed in the Available Evidence
The available evidence attributes the following statement to Shahrur: “For him, polytheism and disbelief are linked to illusory permanence and the rejection of change; disbelief here is also understood as an overt hostile act.” The explicit link in this statement is thus between polytheism, on the one hand, and illusory permanence and the rejection of change, on the other. The statement itself does not provide a complete definition of polytheism or specify its relation to الكفر.
Atlas Explanation
This atom records that the available evidence links polytheism, in this presentation, to illusory permanence and the rejection of change; the evidence is insufficient to determine whether this is a comprehensive definition of the term or one aspect of its use. See also: polytheism and History, Evolution, and the Sunnahs.
Limited Inference
As a limited inference, “illusory permanence” may be understood as a critical description of the claim that something endures when the evidence does not establish that it does. But the evidence does not itself identify the object of this permanence or provide examples of it, so no examples are added from outside the text.
Open Question and Limits
The available evidence here does not establish that polytheism leads to injustice, nor does it establish the conceptual distinction between polytheism and disbelief; their pairing in the statement is not evidence of synonymy. Moreover, the text of the direct statement is not available in its raw context within the package, so its wording and location in the book require review. For reading in the context of the book: The State and Society, and for a structural connection mentioned on the preceding page: The story of Moses and the righteous servant symbolizes the struggle between knowledge and law.
Muhammad Shahrur, The State and Society · The story of Moses and the righteous servant symbolizes the struggle between knowledge and law