Shahrur understands it as an open field that is not subject to a determinism akin to the laws of nature, nor can it be preprogrammed in advance. It is the arena of human free action and planning from the present, not merely the retrieval of closed models from the past.
- Humans participate in making history
- Human history is not subject to determinism
- Human history and the messages are open to freedom, not compulsion
- History resists programming
- The Wise Revelation presents transcendent knowledge, not a historical narrative
- The Wise Revelation reads the narratives critically to establish coexistence and freedom
- The historical pattern is tied to human freedom
- The future unseen is not known with certainty
- The Qur’anic narratives are tidings for reflection
- The Qur’anic narratives are not for prediction
- The Qur’anic narratives are historical interpretive knowledge, rationally interpreted to uncover the laws of freedom and humanity
- The Qur’anic narratives record the development of the messages
- The Qur’anic narratives reveal historical laws and the human role within them
- The Qur’anic narratives accord with history and archaeology
- The narratives present the history of the messages as human laws open to freedom
- The narratives reveal historical laws
- Understanding history requires interpretation, not prediction
- Human beings’ function is to plan from the present