Citation location: Episode 27: Inheritance: the mentioned heirs, shares, and cases of equality, at 07:18–07:21. Audible testimony: “The example is that you are a state issuing a law; what matters to it in the law is the justice of society, not the justice of a family.”
The wife and husband are counted at the level of society, not the individual family
Source note: This page summarizes explanatory audiovisual material. Book references provide nearby context and do not constitute verbatim evidence; for precise citation, consult the original episode and book.
Statement formulation
Shahrur rejects reading the inheritance of spouses only within an individual family, and affirms that legislation takes society as a whole into account.
Explanation
In the example he gives, he explains that justice in the share of the husband or wife is not measured by the situation of one household, but by the total society across the number of similar cases. Thus the result may seem unbalanced in one family, but it is statistically balanced at the level of society. This is a central part of his logic in turning inheritance into a social law.
Its place in the episode’s argument
This idea justifies results that may seem shocking at the level of the individual case. It also supports his claim that inheritance is “collective justice,” not family-based justice.
Limits of the claim
He does not say that every individual case is just in itself, but rather that justice is achieved at the level of the whole.
Brief evidence
“Inheritance contains collective justice… whereas the bequest contains individual justice.”
Related links
- Shahrur - The civil state
- Shahrur - Jurisprudence
- Muhammad-Shahrur-The-State-and-Society