Intended Meaning
The author holds that the shahada and the shahid are not limited to those slain in battles alone and that confining them to this technical sense is a departure from the broader Qur’anic meaning
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: interpretive
- Argument movement: the shahada is not limited to those slain in battles, but extends to broader meanings.
- Key terms: shahada, shahid, those slain in battles, Qur’anic meaning.
- Degree of centrality: central.
This atom expands the field of shahada from the narrow combative meaning to a broader meaning in Qur’anic usage. In doing so, it revises the technical restriction produced by tradition.
Reading Aids
- Muhammad Shahrur, Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism
- Jihad, Combat, and the Critique of Violence
- shahada
- shahid
- The word, the utterance, and speech are a broader meaning
Grounding
- Supporting text: “He emphasizes that the shahada and the shahid are not confined to those slain in battles, and that restricting them to this technical meaning is a departure from Qur’anic usage.”
Documentation Level
- 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 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 definitional; it establishes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur depends in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial Note
It is preferable to link it to the atom that shahada is not killing in battle.