The Mother of the Book Is the Decisive Ordinances
Editorial verification status: This atom is extracted from an explanatory audiovisual source, and has now been linked to the closest books within Shahrur’s project at the book level. For precise academic citation, consult the original book and the original episode together.
Formulation of the claim
Shahrur holds that “the Mother of the Book” is the set of decisive verses with a legislative character.
They represent the fixed foundation upon which the details are built.
Explanation
He says that the decisive verses are “the Mother of the Book” because they represent the legislative basis.
He treats them as a closed or fixed structure into which ijtihad does not enter in principle.
Then the details of human beings and society come to flesh out these foundations in reality.
So the Mother of the Book is not the whole text, but its governing center.
Its place in the argument of the episode
This idea stands at the heart of the episode, because it explains what is meant by the decisive and what its relation is to the Book.
From there, Shahrur moves on to distinguish between the fixed and the elaborated.
Limits of the claim
He does not say that the Mother of the Book includes all kinds of verses; rather, he restricts it to the decisive ones.
Brief witness
“The decisive verses are the Mother of the Book… the mother of legislation”
Closely related links
- Shahrur - decisive
- Book: The Mother of the Book and Its Elaboration
- Shahrur - jurisprudence