In Shahrur’s usage, it functions as the fixed text that carries transcendent knowledge, yet it does not operate as a book of history or as a repository of legislative narratives. In this source, it is also the pole that opposes the Salafi reading through criticism of transmitted reports and by opening up the field of coexistence on the basis of the common word.
- Asbāb al-nuzūl are not a universal key
- Asbāb al-nuzūl and transmitted reports are not suitable as an absolute basis for understanding
- The default with things is permissibility, and prohibition applies to acts
- Human beings participate in making history
- Banīn may mean building
- Interpretation is a graduated reading of the text and the narratives
- Human history and the messengers are open to freedom, not determinism
- The Wise Revelation is not a book of history
- The Wise Revelation moves against this tendency
- The Wise Revelation presents transcendent knowledge, not historical narration
- The Wise Revelation reads the narratives critically to establish coexistence and freedom
- Historical Sunna is linked to human freedom
- The Flood was a local event in Mesopotamia
- A systematic reading of the narratives separates moral lesson from legislation and frees understanding from closed inheritance
- Qur’anic narratives are reports for moral reflection
- Legislation cannot be derived from Qur’anic narratives
- Qur’anic narratives are not for prediction
- Qur’anic narratives are not material for legislation
- Qur’anic narratives are historical, exemplary knowledge that is interpreted rationally to uncover the laws of freedom and humanity
- Qur’anic narratives record the development of the messengers
- Qur’anic narratives reveal historical laws and the role of human beings within them
- Qur’anic narratives correspond with history and archaeology
- Narratives are not used for legislation
- The narratives reread religious and civilizational history to build a humane consciousness of coexistence
- The narratives present the history of the messengers as human laws open to freedom
- The narratives reveal historical laws
- Analogical legal reasoning does not apply to narratives
- The aim of Qur’anic narratives is moral reflection
- Understanding history requires interpretation, not prediction
- The story of Joseph supports a rational reading
- The benefits of livestock are broader than meat