Intended meaning
The author links clothing to a practical function: warding off social and natural harm, not imposing a fixed and specific form for it. For him, the intended purpose of clothing is to protect human beings and reduce harm, while its details are left to custom and circumstances.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: legislative
- Argument movement: the function of clothing is to ward off social and natural harm.
- Central terms: clothing, harm, social, natural, custom.
- Degree of centrality: central.
This atom defines the function of clothing as protection from harm rather than the imposition of a fixed form. It also leaves its details to custom and changing circumstances.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence
- Women, Family, and Clothing
- The Light Verse sets a minimum for clothing and leaves the rest to custom
Basis
- Supporting text: “links clothing to the concepts of social and natural harm”.
Degree of documentation
- Level: inferred from near context
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies more on the meaning of the immediate context than on a single direct sentence.
- Reason for classification: the evidence suggests warding off harm without a direct statement of the function.
- Limits of the reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the evidence is quoted textually.
Its function in the book
Its function here is argumentative; it supports a larger conclusion in the chapter or prepares the way for it.
Related to
Editorial note
This atom is central in the section on women and clothing.