Meaning
What is meant is that what abides is that which neither perishes nor is consumed, and this attribute is ascribed to God alone, not to time. Time, however, is not the locus of abidingness; rather, it is regarded as duration, not abidingness.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Argument type: definitional
- Argument movement: Abidingness belongs exclusively to God, not to time.
- Central terms: abidingness, God, time.
- Degree of centrality: secondary.
This atom confines abidingness to that which neither perishes nor is consumed, and refers it to God alone. It distinguishes between temporal duration and true abidingness.
Links That Aid Reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: the Book and the Qur’an
- the Book, the Qur’an, and the Mother of the Book
- God
- Disbelief and polytheism are contextual concepts, not tools of authority
Evidence
- Supporting text: “That which abides: that which neither perishes nor is consumed; it is ascribed to God, not to time.”
Location of Evidence in the Book
- Book: the Book and the Qur’an.
- Location: At the beginning of the book, within the treatment of the relationship between time and the structure of meaning in language.
- Type of evidence: close textual witness.
- Verification aid: factors of time
- Reading note: This passage is suitable as evidence because the textual witness links meaning to time and development, supporting the idea that abidingness is attributed to God rather than to time.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: The atom rests on an explicit textual witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of reading: The wording above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness has been transcribed verbatim.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is definitional: it establishes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in constructing the idea.
Related to
Note for the Reader
A useful atom for clarifying the distinctions between divine attributes and time.