What is meant
Polytheism here means regarding what is mutable as though it were fixed; in other words, letting conviction or representation become a fixation of what does not remain stable For Shahrur, it is a mental stance that misunderstands reality before it is anything merely practical In this sense, polytheism is distinguished from unbelief, because unbelief, for him, is an announcement, an adversarial stance, or a covering up of the truth
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: definitional
- Movement of the argument: It defines polytheism as fixing what is mutable, and distinguishes it from unbelief.
- Central terms: polytheism, the mutable, unbelief, fixity.
- Degree of centrality: pivotal.
It opens the meaning of polytheism onto a perceptual error before it is a practical violation, while highlighting the difference between it and unbelief as an adversarial stance.
Reading aids
- Muhammad Shahrur Islam and Humanity
- Islam, faith, and righteous action
- Polytheism
- Unbelief
- Islam is historically and conceptually prior to the specificity of the Muhammadan message
Basis
- Supporting text: “He links polytheism and unbelief to two different stances: polytheism is a conviction or representation of the fixedness of what is mutable, while unbelief is an announcement, an adversarial stance, or a covering up of the truth.”
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom is based on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of the reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted textually.
Its function in the book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in constructing the idea.
Related to
Editorial note
The distinction between the two concepts is essential to understanding.