What is meant
The Mother of the Book is understood here as the general limiting source that is valid for every time. It is the cosmic origin on which the meaning of the Qur’an is built in its relation to the Mother of the Book.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: definitional
- Argument movement: makes the Mother of the Book an origin valid for all times.
- Key terms: Mother of the Book, general source, time.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
The atom defines the Mother of the Book as a general origin on which the meaning of the Qur’an is founded, giving it the quality of absolute stability in contrast to variation in understanding.
Links that help reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: The Book and the Qur’an
- The Book, the Qur’an, and the Mother of the Book
- Mother of the Book
- The Qur’an and the Mother of the Book
Basis
- Supporting text: «The Mother of the Book is to be the general limiting source valid for every time».
Related verses
Place of the basis in the book
- Book: The Book and the Qur’an.
- Location: at the beginning of the book within the presentation of the structure of the Qur’an
- Type of basis: close evidence.
- Mark that helps verification: it includes the general dialectical law
- Reading note: the location is close because it speaks of the Qur’an as comprising a general law, which is suitable as support for the idea of the general cosmic source.
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of the reading: the wording above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted textually.
Its function in the book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial note
The atom represents a structural principle in the book’s vision.