Intended Meaning
Will here is not a single fixed meaning, but carries two faces: affirmation and negation. It is linked to the possibility of choice, meaning that it opens a field of possibility, not determinism.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: interpretive
- Movement of the argument: it makes the will a field of possibility between affirmation and negation.
- Key terms: will, affirmation, negation, choice.
- Degree of centrality: central.
It opens the meaning of will to multiple possibilities instead of determinism, and ties it to human action as a field of choice rather than compulsion.
Reading Aids
- Muhammad Shahrur: The Book and the Qur’an
- Freedom, Human Beings, and Responsibility
- Disbelief and polytheism are contextual concepts, not instruments of power
Basis
- Supporting text: «The will: it carries two faces, affirmation and negation, and is linked to the possibility of choice».
Place of Support in the Book
- Book: The Book and the Qur’an.
- Location: at the beginning of the book
- Type of support: close witness.
- Verifying marker: a meaning between two things
- Reading note: This location works as evidence because it presents the will within a meaning that opens onto two faces and the possibility of choice.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on an explicit 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 transmitted textually.
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
The broader context is needed to distinguish it from will.