The Upper Limit and the Lower Limit

2 min read

What is meant

Shahrur means that some legislative texts do not impose a single closed ruling, but rather set an upper limit or a lower limit within which interpretation moves Within this field, applied rulings change according to objective circumstances

The atom’s structure in the atlas

  • Type of argument: legislative
  • Movement of the argument: some rulings are understood within a range between an upper limit and a lower limit.
  • Central terms: the upper limit, the lower limit, legal rulings, interpretation.
  • Degree of centrality: central.

The atom explains that a text does not always equal a single closed ruling, but may instead define a field of movement. This opens the door to practical application that varies according to circumstances without departing from the text.

Support

  • Supporting text: “Shahrur offers a boundary-based reading of legislation: some texts set an upper limit and sometimes a lower limit, and interpretation is left to move between them according to objective circumstances.”

Place of support in the book

  • Book: The Book and the Qur’an.
  • Location: in the middle section of the book
  • Type of support: close witness.
  • Marker that helps verification: as a lower limit and as an upper limit
  • Reading note: the passage presents the idea of upper and lower limits explicitly, so it is a strong basis for the atom.

Degree of documentation

  • Level: directly documented
  • Meaning of the level: the atom relies on a direct 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 is quoted verbatim.

Its function in the book

Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction that Shahrur relies on in constructing the idea.

Editorial note

This atom complements the idea of interpretation within limits.

Graph View

Backlinks6

Muhammad Shahrur Atlas