Intended meaning
Violence is accepted in this context only as a means to lift oppression, not to impose a creed or opinion on people The criterion here limits the use of force to the aim of removing injustice, not turning it into an instrument of intellectual or religious coercion
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: value-based
- Argument movement: force is accepted to lift oppression, not to impose opinion.
- Key terms: violence, oppression, coercion, injustice.
- Degree of centrality: central.
This atom regulates the use of force ethically, preventing it from becoming a means of coercion and linking its legitimacy only to the lifting of injustice, not to entrenching domination or imposing belief.
Reading aids
- Muhammad Shahrur: The State and Society
- Jihad, fighting, and criticism of violence
- Injustice
- Falsehood and despotism corrupt morals, while morals remain fixed above politics
Basis
- Supporting text: “Violence is justified only to lift oppression, not to impose a creed or opinion.”
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit witness close to the formulation of the claim.
- Limits of the reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted verbatim.
Its function in the book
Its function here is oppositional; it responds to a common understanding or overturns an inherited reading at this point.
Related to
Editorial note
The meaning has been confined to the legitimate purpose without addition.