Shahrur’s Statement
Shahrur says: “Human knowledge advances through scientific distinction and classification, not through imitation and repetition.” This is established in the available evidence, though no raw text or typographic location is available.
In an anchored passage from the book: “by CLASSIFICATION, and all human knowledge rests on these two basic elements for scientific study and scientific research in any field of science.” The beginning of this excerpt is truncated, so it does not establish the other element referred to by the phrase “these two elements.”
The Atom’s Function in the Atlas
The atlas reads the contrast between distinction and classification on the one hand, and imitation and repetition on the other, as a methodological principle for differentiating concepts. It prepares for a reading of Muhammad Shahrur The Qur’an in Contemporary Thought and relates to The Method of Contemporary Reading.
Limits of the Evidence
The available witness does not explain the criterion of distinction or the steps of classification. The statement combining distinction, classification, imitation, and repetition is textually established in the available evidence, but without raw context or an available typographic location. The anchored excerpt on p. 38 establishes the connection between classification and scientific study and research, but it begins in the middle of the statement.