What is meant
For Shahrur, the Qur’an is not of the same kind as human heritage, because it is the living word of God, not an accumulated human product. Therefore, it is not understood as an inherited text like human books, but is read according to Arabic and its laws. Nor is it permissible to mix it with jurisprudence and schools of thought, or to make the inherited interpretation itself the text.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: definitional
- Argument movement: the Qur’an is removed from the sphere of human heritage.
- Central terms: the Qur’an, heritage, the Arabic language.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
This atom defines the Qur’an as living divine speech, separates it from human inheritance, and links its understanding to the laws of Arabic rather than to the authority of accumulated commentary.
Reading aids
- Muhammad Shahrur: The Book and the Qur’an
- The Book and the Qur’an and the Mother of the Book
- The Qur’an
- Qur’anic understanding distinguishes between objective law and human choice
Basis
- Supporting text: “The Qur’an differs from human books because it is from the living God, and therefore it is not considered heritage. Understanding the Qur’an must take place according to the Arabic language and its laws, not according to synonymy or inherited explanation alone. It is not permissible to mix the interpretation of the text with jurisprudential heritage or with schools of thought as if they were the text itself.”
Place of the basis in the book
- Book: The Book and the Qur’an.
- Location: at the beginning of the book
- Type of basis: proximate witness.
- Marker that helps verification: The Noble Qur’an is valid for every time and place
- Reading note: The passage affirms that the Qur’an is from God and that contemporary reading differs from the inherited tradition, which suits the atom’s basis of distinguishing the Qur’an from heritage.
Degree of documentation
- Level: structurally documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on more than one witness or on a clear composition of closely related phrases.
- Reason for classification: the wording explicitly states that the Qur’an is not heritage.
- Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary and is not treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is cited word for word.
Its function in the book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction that Shahrur relies on in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial note
This atom is foundational in Shahrur’s method of Qur’anic reading.