The Intended Meaning
The author presents the Qur’an as a multidimensional concept, calling it truth, the clear signs, speech, the Great Qur’an, and the blessed Book depending on the angle of view. These descriptions do not imply plurality in origin, but rather a difference in meaning and function within the Qur’anic text.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: interpretive
- Movement of the argument: bringing the Qur’an’s descriptions together in a single semantic direction, while differing in function.
- Key terms: the Qur’an, truth, the clear signs, speech, the blessed Book.
- Degree of centrality: central.
It explains that the multiplicity of names does not mean multiplicity of origin, but rather a difference in the angles from which the text and its functions are viewed, so that meaning shifts from naming to the level of significance.
Reading Aids
- Muhammad Shahrur: The Book and the Qur’an
- The Book, the Qur’an, and the Mother of the Book
- the Qur’an
- The Qur’anic understanding distinguishes between objective law and human choice
Basis
- Supporting text: “It posits that the Qur’an is the “truth”, the “clear signs”, the “speech”, the “great Qur’an”, and the “blessed Book” according to different points of view.”
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom is based on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary and is not treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted word for word.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is definitional; it establishes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial Note
The atom shows how the author reads the unity of the text through a plurality of descriptions.