What Shahrur Attributes to Hajj Hamd
Shahrur presents “the sovereignty of deputization” as “a second stage in human history.” He links it to a transition from “exclusive divine rule,” in which human intervention through ijtihad in governance was forbidden, to a stage in which “he was gradually permitted to intervene in governance.”
In a later passage, he gives a broader sequence: “divine sovereignty and the sovereignty of deputization,” followed by “human sovereignty.” He describes this by saying that God “gradually led humanity to govern itself.”
Atlas Explanation
Gradualism in this atom does not mean that the term Sovereignty is synonymous with history, nor that it constitutes a ready-made judgment on all forms of authority. The specific point of the cited passage is an ordering of historical stages, in which the degree of human intervention in ijtihad and governance changes. Thus, History is read here as the framework of stage and transition in the account attributed to Hajj Hamd.
Conclusion
The argument can be summarized as follows: in this account, sovereignty is not presented as a single condition that occurs all at once. The text attests to a second stage and to a “gradual” permission for human intervention, while another passage attests to a progression culminating in humanity governing itself. This is a synthetic summary of the evidence, not a verbatim quotation.
Open Question and Limits of the Reading
The first excerpt alone does not specify the full number of stages or the detailed conditions for transition between them. Nor does the page, by itself, establish that this division is Shahrur’s own definition of sovereignty; the wording explicitly attributes it to “Abu al-Qasim Hajj Hamd’s reading.”
For the broader context: Muhammad Shahrur, Religion and Power, The Civil State and Religion and Power, Islamic religion accords with fitra, and freedom is the basis of the human being.
Religion and Power · Islamic religion accords with fitra, and freedom is the basis of the human being