Meaning
What is meant is that history does not proceed along a course that can be predetermined or reproduced literally, because human conditions do not recur in the same form. Human consciousness and freedom make the exact repetition of the same causes impossible.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: Methodological
- Movement of the argument: Denies the possibility of programming history or reproducing it literally.
- Central terms: history, programming, consciousness, freedom.
- Degree of centrality: Central.
The atom affirms that history does not repeat itself in the same form because human conditions change. It thus limits strict prediction and grants freedom a decisive role in historical formation.
Links That Aid Reading
- Muhammad Shahrur, Qur’anic Narratives, vol. 2
- History, Evolution, and Laws
- History
- Freedom
- Qur’anic Narratives Reveal Historical Laws and the Human Role in Them
Evidence
- Supporting text: “History is not understood as a course susceptible to prior programming or literal reproduction, because the exact repetition of the same causes is impossible with changes in human consciousness and freedom.”
Location of the Evidence in the Book
- Book: Qur’anic Narratives, vol. 2.
- Location: In the final section of the book, in the discussion of the repetition of causes and history.
- Type of evidence: Close textual witness.
- Verification aid: resistant to prior programming
- Reading note: The text explicitly states the impossibility of causes recurring identically and that history resists prior programming, which corresponds to the atom.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: Directly documented
- Meaning of the level: The atom rests on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of interpretation: The wording above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is cited word for word.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is declarative: it establishes a conclusion on which the subsequent course of the argument depends.
Related to
Note to the Reader
The atom is methodological because it discusses history’s susceptibility to rigid modeling.