Human Legislation Is Variable

2 min read

What is meant

What is meant is that the laws humans set are not fixed; rather, they change according to time, place, and circumstances As for divine prohibition, it is fixed and limited and does not change Therefore, the text distinguishes between what is made by humans, which is subject to amendment, and what is from God, which remains as it is

The atom’s structure in the atlas

  • Type of argument: legislative
  • Argument movement: human legislation is described as variable, while divine prohibition is fixed and limited.
  • Central terms: human legislation, divine prohibition, fixity.
  • Degree of centrality: pivotal.

This atom draws the line of separation between civil law, which is open to review, and fixed religious prohibition, thereby granting human legislation room to move within clear constraints.

Grounding

  • Supporting text: “Human legislation is variable, whereas divine prohibition is fixed and limited.”

Place of the grounding in the book

  • Book: Religion and Authority.
  • Location: near the beginning of the book
  • Type of grounding: close citation.
  • Mark that helps verification: it does not change or vary no matter how authorities change
  • Reading note: the text establishes that values and conduct do not change with the change of authorities, and this supports the idea of distinguishing variable human legislation from fixed divine law.

Degree of documentation

  • Level: directly documented
  • Meaning of the level: the atom relies on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
  • Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary, and is not treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is transmitted as text.

Its function in the book

Its function here is declarative; it establishes a result on which what follows depends in the course of the argument.

Editorial note

Very useful in discussing the relationship between religion and law.

Graph View

Backlinks7

Muhammad Shahrur Atlas