Intended Meaning
The passage holds that the civil state is based on citizenship as equality in rights and duties among all citizens, whatever their nations and nationalities may be. Accordingly, loyalty to the homeland becomes the strongest and rises above national and transnational loyalty, because it guarantees the protection of national unity and its defense in the face of aggression. It also makes the shared law the basis of the relationship among members of society.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: political
- Argument movement: citizenship is the basis of the civil state, and loyalty to the homeland in it comes before national and transnational loyalty.
- Key terms: citizenship, homeland, national, transnational.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
The atom makes citizenship a principle that places people on an equal footing in rights and duties within the civil state. It therefore elevates loyalty to the homeland above all else, because it ensures unity and common protection.
Links That Help Reading
Basis
- Supporting text: «If the task of the civil state consists in guaranteeing the rights and freedoms of all citizens on the basis that it is founded on the principle of the state of citizenship, that is, equality among citizens in rights and duties regardless of their nations and nationalities, then it must follow that there be loyalty from its citizens to it that is stronger than the other two loyalties, the national and the transnational, and that it takes the form of loyalty to the homeland, a loyalty built on the existence of a sense of belonging to the homeland in the souls of the members of the people of any state and the readiness to preserve its unity and defend it if necessary. Citizenship as a political principle works to regulate the process of contention in society through rules, among the most important of which are the interest of the homeland and its unity, based on respect for diversity, with the aim of benefiting from this diversity in strengthening the basis of national unity, so that all members of society feel that their future depends on the extent of the success of this unity, which in no way negates their particularities, while committing to positive neutrality toward the convictions, beliefs, and ideologies of its citizens. On this basis, activating the sense of citizenship (belonging to the homeland and defending it) as a fundamental principle in society is considered the effective mechanism for reducing strife and sectarian, ethnic, and racist conflicts in any state according to the principle of equality and non-discrimination among its members, because as a constitutional principle, it does not abolish the process of contention and competition in the social sphere, but rather regulates it according to the rules of the homeland and its unity based on respect for diversity, so that it seeks through legal and peaceful means to benefit from this diversity in strengthening the basis of national unity, until everyone feels that their future depends on it, and that it does not constitute a negation of their particularities, but rather a field for expressing them by means consistent with the gains of civilization. Thus their national loyalty becomes to the law in force in the homeland and applied to all members of society. Citizenship is built upon the legal and economic relationship among members of society».
Place of the Basis in the Book
- Book: Islam and Man.
- Location: in the final section of the book
- Type of basis: near witness.
- Verification marker: belonging to the homeland and defending it
- Reading note: This location works as evidence because it links citizenship to belonging to the homeland and defending it, and makes national loyalty the basis for regulating coexistence within the state.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: structurally documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on more than one witness or on a clear composition of closely related phrases.
- Reason for classification: the text explicitly states the priority of loyalty to the homeland over national and transnational loyalty.
- Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is cited word for word.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is argumentative; it supports a larger conclusion in the chapter or prepares for it.
Editorial Note
This atom is central to Shahrur’s conception of the modern state.