What is meant
What is meant is that abrogation and substitution occurred between the previous revelations, not within the Muhammadan revelation These revelations were not always on a single pattern; rather, changes arose among them in rulings and meanings
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: historical
- Movement of the argument: it confines abrogation to the previous revelations and does not place it within the Muhammadan revelation.
- Central terms: abrogation, previous revelations, Muhammadan revelation.
- Degree of centrality: pivotal.
It draws historical boundaries for the concept of abrogation, linking it to the succession of revelations rather than to textual change within the final revelation.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: The Book and the Qur’an
- History, Development, and Laws
- the Muhammadan revelation
- Abrogation does not occur within the Muhammadan revelation but pertains to the previous revelations
Basis
- Supporting text: “Among the previous revelations, where abrogation and substitution occurred between them.”
Place of support in the book
- Book: The Book and the Qur’an.
- Location: in the first section of the book, in the discussion of successive revelations.
- Type of support: close attestation.
- Marker that helps verification: abrogation did occur
- Reading note: This passage is suitable as evidence because it explicitly states the occurrence of abrogation in the rulings of successive revelations.
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit witness close to the formulation 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 cited verbatim.
Its function in the book
Its function here is assertive; it establishes a result on which what follows in the argument depends.
Related to
Editorial note
The relationship between the historical and the legislative needs clarification so that the description of events does not become confused with a judgment about the text.