Intended Meaning
The intended meaning is that the Qur’anic commands and prohibitions engage society through flexible mechanisms that can be applied according to circumstances, but they do not transgress fixed boundaries The most prominent of these boundaries is the prohibition of coercion; compliance is not imposed by force
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: methodological
- Argument movement: makes the mechanisms of the Qur’anic commands flexible while keeping the boundaries fixed.
- Key terms: the Qur’anic commands, flexibility, boundaries, coercion.
- Degree of centrality: central.
It determines how the text is applied in society, as it distinguishes between the fixity of boundaries and the flexibility of application, and affirms that coercion is not a legitimate means of compliance.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur Drying Up the Springs of Terrorism
- the contemporary reading method
- The verses of fighting and the Muhammadan narratives do not legitimate absolute violence
Basis
- Supporting text: “It affirms that the Qur’anic commands and prohibitions are socially flexible in their mechanisms, but their boundaries are fixed, and the most important condition in them is the absence of coercion.”
Related Verses
Place of the Basis in the Book
- Book: Drying Up the Springs of Terrorism.
- Location: in the final section of the book within the discussion of religion, authority, and the absence of coercion.
- Type of basis: near witness.
- Marker for verification: Lā ikrāha fī al-dīn
- Reading note: This passage is suitable because it states that religion commands and forbids without coercion, and it contrasts the function of religion with the function of authority.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Reading boundaries: the formulation above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is cited textually.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is definitional; it sets out a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial Note
This atom is methodological because it describes the way the ruling is applied, not the ruling itself alone.