What is meant
This claim means that, at this point in Shahrur’s argument, the Qur’anic narrative is not read as a text that establishes a binding legal ruling. Its function is to provide lessons connected to events that have passed, while rulings are placed in the “Message.”
Thus, the question is not whether narratives have meaning or effect, but whether a binding ruling can be derived from them. His answer is no.
What is attributed to Shahrur
Shahrur says of the events presented in the narratives: “These events contain no legislation whatsoever; rather, they contain only lessons that must reach us.” In setting out his division, he also states that “within the Wise Revelation is a book of rulings, which is the Book of the Message,” and that “the narratives are part of the Qur’an.”
He thus distinguishes narratives from the Message in terms of function: narratives are not the locus of legislation, whereas the Book of the Message is the locus of rulings.
Atlas explanation
The term “non-legislative” does not mean that narratives lack significance; the cited passage itself affirms that they provide lessons. What is intended is to delimit the kind of significance involved: in this division, the lesson drawn from a past event is not a binding ruling established from the narrative.
This distinction is useful when reading The Qur’anic Narrative and History and in connecting narrative to the question of History, Evolution, and Patterns, with reference to the entry on the Qur’anic narrative.
Conclusion
Within Shahrur’s framework, this division entails that moving from a narrative report to a binding legal obligation is not an acceptable move merely because the report occurs in the Revelation; it separates the domain of narrative from that of rulings in the Message. This is a synthetic inference from the denial of legislation in the events and the designation of the Message as a book of rulings.
Open question and limit of the reading
The available passage does not explain in detail how to deal with every passage that may combine narrative presentation with expressions of command or prohibition. This page therefore establishes the basic functional distinction, but does not by itself settle all its interpretive applications.
For the broader context in the book, see The Qur’anic Narrative, vol. 1 and its relation to the structure of Islam Is a Universal Human Message.