What Is Attributed to Shahrur?
The material attributes to Shahrur the view that the contract is what the state needs to legally establish a marriage, whereas the covenant is the commitment undertaken by the spouses themselves. This establishes a functional distinction between the two terms in the context of marriage, without the available material providing further detail about the content of either.
Atlas Explanation
The atlas does not treat the contract and the covenant here as synonymous: the available wording assigns the contract the function of legal establishment by the state, and assigns the covenant the function of commitment by the spouses. This explanation is limited to the paraphrased source statement; it is not a complete definition of the two terms.
Limited Inference
The statement may be understood as distinguishing between two functions in the presentation of marriage: legal establishment and commitment between the spouses. However, this is a limited synthetic inference; it does not by itself establish detailed rulings concerning documentation, rights, or divorce.
What Does the Source Not Settle?
The available evidence does not specify the procedures required by the contract, the elements that constitute the covenant, or how the distinction between them relates to divorce. Nor is a verbatim quotation from the episode available to verify the wording and its context. It is necessary to consult the original episode and Towards New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence before making a more precise academic attribution.