What Is Meant Here?
The point is not to deny the state’s authority to prohibit and regulate, but to deny that its prohibition is a source of a new religious prohibition. In this view, prohibition is a closed category after God has specified it; a ban, by contrast, is a regulatory decision that may be tied to circumstances and public interest.
What Is Attributed to Shahrur
Shahrur says that what is forbidden in the «Wise Revelation» is «specific, limited, and closed,» and that «no one after God has the right to add to it or subtract from it.» On this basis, he draws an explicit distinction between a ban and religious prohibition: for him, a ban is a «contingent regulation» whose codification is left to the legislative authority in accordance with the public interest. He notes that some acts may be prohibited or permitted in specific circumstances.
Atlas Explanation
This view distinguishes between two levels: religious prohibition as a religious designation that human legislation cannot establish or nullify, and a ban as legislative regulation of actions according to circumstances. Thus, within this terminological framework, a legal ban is not treated as synonymous with religious prohibition. See: Muhammad Shahrur: Religion and Authority.
Synthetic Conclusion
The atom establishes a boundary between what Shahrur considers a fixed prohibition attributed to revelation and what he sees as the domain of changing civil legislation. Accordingly, the ruling on a regulatory ban may change as circumstances change, without this implying any change in the scope of religious prohibitions.
Open Question and Limits of the Evidence
This evidence alone does not explain how the public interest is determined, nor does it provide detailed criteria for the cases in which an act is prohibited or permitted. It also does not present the list of prohibitions that Shahrur considers closed. For the broader context: Legislation, Limits, and Prohibition, and The Qur’anic prohibitions are fixed, while prohibition (nahy) is left to human reasoning.
Religion and Authority · The Qur’anic prohibitions are fixed, while prohibition (nahy) is left to human reasoning