What is meant
The author holds that the circumstances of revelation may not be turned into general legislative causes They are tied to the specific circumstance in which the verse was revealed, and are not taken as an absolute rule for legislation in all situations
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: methodological
- Movement of the argument: rejects turning the circumstance of revelation into a general legislative cause.
- Key terms: circumstances of revelation, legislative causes, special circumstance, rule.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
It regulates the way the historical context is employed, preventing the transformation of the special circumstance into a universal rule, and thereby preserving the general applicability of the text from unchecked expansion.
Reading aids
- Muhammad Shahrur: Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism
- the contemporary reading method
- The verses of fighting and the Muhammadan narratives do not legitimate absolute violence
Basis
- Supporting text: “Criticizes turning the circumstances of revelation into general legislative causes.”
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 is not treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is transmitted 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
The atom is a rule in dealing with context.