What is meant
What is meant by “the people” here is a broad collectivity united by a single political entity, that is, one state and a single economic and legal system. The people are not merely a transient human gathering, but an organized unity based on this shared system.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: definitional
- Movement of the argument: the people are defined as a political collectivity with a single system.
- Key terms: the people, the state, the economic system, the legal system.
- Degree of centrality: central.
This fixes the meaning of “the people” within the framework of the state and the system, so that it is not left as a transient human aggregation, but is tied to a shared organizational structure that governs it and preserves its unity.
Reading aids
- Muhammad Shahrur Drying Up the Springs of Terrorism
- The Civil State, Religion, and Authority
- The People
Grounding
- Supporting text: “The people: a broader collectivity united by a single state and a single economic and legal system.”
Place of grounding in the book
- Book: Drying Up the Springs of Terrorism.
- Location: in the middle section of the book
- Type of grounding: close evidence.
- Mark that helps verification: they are united by a single conduct
- Reading note: this location is suitable as support because it links the nation to a unity of conduct, which is a basis close to the meaning of a group with a single system.
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on an explicit witness close to the formulation of the claim.
- Limits of the reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted textually.
Editorial note
The atom is a socio-political definition.