What is meant
Faith here is tied to following Muhammad ﷺ and the Muhammadan message, not merely to general belonging to the religion. Therefore, in Shahrur’s view, it is more specific than Islam, because it denotes commitment to what the Messenger brought.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: Distinguishing
- Direction of the argument: Faith is more specific than Islam because it is tied to following the Muhammadan message.
- Key terms: faith, Islam, the Muhammadan message, following.
- Degree of centrality: Primary.
This atom separates two levels of religious affiliation, making faith a more specific degree of commitment than general Islam, and thereby helping to organize concepts rather than conflate them.
Reading aids
- Muhammad Shahrur Islam and Faith
- Islam, Faith, and Righteous Deeds
- faith
- Islam
- the Muhammadan message
Grounding
- Supporting text: “Faith is thus linked to following Muhammad ﷺ and the Muhammadan message.”
Place of grounding in the book
- Book: Islam and Faith.
- Location: in the early pages of the book
- Type of grounding: near evidence.
- Markers that help verification: As for faith, it is specific to following Muhammad
- Reading note: This passage is suitable as evidence because it explicitly states that Islam is general, whereas faith is specific to following Muhammad.
Degree of documentation
- Level: Directly documented
- Meaning of the level: The atom relies on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of reading: The wording 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 sets out a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial note
The distinction here is based on the degree of affiliation, not on denying either concept.