Intended Meaning
Shahrur argues that beauty is not a fixed and absolute value, but changes and develops as knowledge and awareness evolve throughout history. Human understanding of beauty is therefore tied to the level of one’s perception and to the historical stage one lives in.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: Historical
- Movement of the argument: It links beauty to the changing nature of knowledge and awareness throughout history rather than to absolute fixity.
- Key terms: beauty, knowledge, awareness, history.
- Degree of centrality: Central.
It establishes a relative understanding of beauty and makes its meaning change with the changing of human perception and the historical stage. This serves the method of contemporary reading in restoring meaning to its shifting context.
Links to Aid Reading
- Muhammad Shahrur the Book and the Quran
- History, Development, and Sunnas
- History
- Beauty Evolves Historically and Does Not Remain Fixed
Basis
- Supporting text: “Beauty is not a fixed absolute; rather, it evolves with knowledge, awareness, and history.”
Basis in the Book
- Book: The Book and the Qur’an.
- Location: in the final section of the book, within the discussion of legislation and historical development
- Type of basis: Close witness.
- Marker that aids verification: subject to customs and the degree of scientific development
- Reading note: the passage links legal text to historical and scientific change, which supports the broader idea that beauty also develops with knowledge and history.
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 reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is reproduced textually.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is argumentative; it supports a larger conclusion in the chapter or prepares for it.
Related to
Editorial Note
The formulation summarizes a direct interpretive claim, not a final judgment.