Thesis Summary

Shahrur considers filial piety toward one’s parents an innate value rooted in human beings, and its opposite is undutifulness. However, he does not classify undutifulness toward parents among the prescribed limits; instead, he links it to repentance and seeking forgiveness in the moral and religious sphere.

Foundational Atoms

Location of Support within the Book

This becomes clear in the first section of the book, in the discussion of filial piety toward one’s parents and the elaboration of its meaning, and of the corresponding moral effect rather than a penal punishment under the legal limits.

Limits of the Reading

This formulation combines moral value and legal consequence, and it is a composite reading of what the book presents in two close passages.