What is Meant
Muhammad Shahrur holds that the Umayyad rulers turned obedience to those in authority and the idea of predestination into an ideological cover that supported their power. In this way, religious concepts were used to consolidate the existing rule and justify political reality.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: Critical
- Argument movement: It reads obedience to those in authority as a cover for power.
- Key terms: the Umayyads, obedience to those in authority, predestination.
- Degree of centrality: Primary.
It criticizes the use of religious concepts to entrench rule, and shows how texts become tools for conferring legitimacy on political reality.
Links that Help with Reading
- Muhammad Shahrur Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence
- The Civil State, Religion, and Power
- The Conflict after the Prophet’s Death Was Political
Basis
- Supporting text: “The Umayyad and Abbasid rulers used different ideological covers: the Umayyads through obedience to those in authority and predestination, and the Abbasids through kinship to the Messenger and the verses of inheritance and bequest.”
Location of the Basis in the Book
- Book: Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence.
- Location: In the early sections of the book, within the discussion of the search for a cover of legitimacy.
- Type of basis: Close witness.
- Marker that helps verification: Verses of obedience to those in authority.
- Reading note: This location works as support because it mentions the verses of obedience to those in authority as one of the covers that were sought to grant the claim political legitimacy.
Degree of Documentation
- 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 transmitted textually.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is declarative; it establishes a result on which what follows in the argument depends.
Related to
Editorial Note
The atom links religious interpretation to the structure of authority.