What the Text Says
Muhammad Shahrur’s Religion and Authority contains a direct statement: “Human legislation is variable, whereas divine prohibition is fixed and limited.” The statement describes two sides with contrasting attributes: variability for human legislation, and fixity and limitation for divine prohibition.
Atlas Explanation
The page reads the statement as a distinction between two domains, not as a synonymy or equivalence between them: human legislation is the side the text describes as variable, while divine prohibition is the side it describes as fixed and limited. This explanation is confined to the structure of the contrast found in the cited passage.
Qualified Inference
The statement may serve as a point of connection for reading the relationship between religion, legislation, and authority within The Civil State, Religion, and Authority. But this is an interpretive connection in the atlas, not a detail established by this passage alone.
Open Question and Limits of the Evidence
The passage does not define “human legislation” in terms of its institutions or procedures, does not state the reasons for its change, and does not specify what falls under “divine prohibition” or what it means for it to be “limited.” Therefore, the statement should not be taken to claim that civil law alone is intended, or that change explicitly depends on time, place, and circumstances, unless another passage establishes this.