What is meant
Shahrur sees the verses of legal rulings in the Mother of the Book as coming in a general and abstract divine form, and then being applied according to the changing human reality. Therefore, legislation is not understood as ready-made historical rulings imposed on every time period as they are.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: legislative
- Argument movement: makes legislation dependent on changing reality, not preceding it.
- Key terms: legislation, changing reality, the Mother of the Book.
- Degree of centrality: central.
It gives legislation flexibility in application, because the general formulation requires appropriate realization in reality. Thus the ruling is understood as a response to circumstances, not as historical rigidity.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur, The Mother of the Book and Its Elaboration
- Legislation, Limits, and Prohibition
- The confined divine prohibition negates the Messenger’s legislative independence
Basis
- Supporting text: “Shahrur states that the verses of legal rulings in the Mother of the Book carry an abstract and comprehensive divine form, and are then applied according to the changing reality, not the other way around.”
Location of the basis in the book
- Book: The Mother of the Book and Its Elaboration.
- Location: in the first section of the book, within the treatment of the verses of legal rulings and the Mother of the Book.
- Type of basis: direct evidence.
- Mark that helps verification: they are what respond to human reality
- Reading note: the text explicitly states that the verses of legal rulings are applied with regard to reality and that they are what respond to it, which directly supports the atom.
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted word for word.
Its function in the book
Its function here is argumentative; it supports a larger conclusion in the chapter or prepares for it.
Related to
Editorial note
The atom affirms the possibility of renewed application.