What is meant
This meaning rejects tying Islam to coercion in matters of belief, and holds that freedom of choice is the principle of religion. Faith cannot properly be based on compulsion, but rather on conviction and free acceptance.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: value-based
- Argument movement: religion is based on freedom of choice, not on coercion.
- Key terms: freedom of choice, coercion, faith, conviction, acceptance.
- Degree of centrality: foundational.
This atom makes freedom a condition for the validity of religiosity, and prevents turning creed into coercion. It is a basis for building religious responsibility on conscious acceptance, not on compulsion.
Links that aid reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: Draining the Sources of Terrorism
- Islam, Faith, and Righteous Deeds
- Faith
- The Muhammadan Message Is a Message of Mercy and Universality
Basis
- Supporting text: «رفض ربط الإسلام بفكرة الإكراه في العقيدة، ويؤكد أن حرية الاختيار».
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom is grounded in an explicit witness close to the formulation 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 relies in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial note
It establishes the principle of freedom in the basis of belief.