What is meant
The author defines citizenship as loyalty to the homeland, meaning that an individual’s affiliation is to the state in which they live and to the system that governs it. Citizenship here is a relationship of commitment and fidelity linking a person to their homeland and its law.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: definitional
- Argument movement: citizenship is understood as loyalty to the homeland and the law.
- Key terms: citizenship, loyalty to the homeland, law.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
The atom defines citizenship as a bond of commitment, not a bond of lineage or sect. In this way, the relationship between the human being and the state is built on practical loyalty to the public order.
Links that help with reading
Basis
- Supporting text: ««Citizenship… is loyalty to the homeland»».
Basis location in the book
- Book: Islam and Man.
- Location: within the treatment of the meaning of citizenship in the middle section of the book
- Type of basis: close witness.
- Marker that helps verification: citizenship (loyalty to the homeland)
- Reading note: This passage is suitable as support because it links citizenship to loyalty to the homeland and makes relations among individuals based on human values and law.
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom is based on a clear witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of 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 establishes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in building the idea.
Editorial note
This is a direct civil definition of citizenship.