What is meant
Shahrur sees the linking of those killed in the path of God with the meaning of martyr as something that did not come from the Wise Revelation, but was fashioned by hadith reports and then inserted into Islamic culture. Accordingly, he distinguishes between the meaning of martyr in the Qur’an and the idea of combat martyrdom familiar in the tradition.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: critical
- Argument movement: denies the Qur’anic originality of combat martyrdom
- Key terms: hadith reports, martyr, in the path of God, the Wise Revelation.
- Degree of centrality: secondary.
This atom criticizes the transformation of the meaning of being killed in the path of God into a belated combat idea not found in the Qur’an. Its place within the atlas is to resist reliance on report-based argumentation when it competes with the Qur’anic text.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur Islam and Faith
- Jihad, Combat, and the Critique of Violence
- the martyr
- the Wise Revelation
- martyrdom
Basis
- Supporting text: «The meaning projected onto the original meaning of those killed in the path of God is not found at all in the Wise Revelation; rather, it is a product of the hadith industry, which linked the meaning of those who were killed in the path of God to the meaning of the martyrs, a meaning derived from the Christian culture that was prevalent before the Muhammadan mission.»
Place of the basis in the book
- Book: Islam and Faith.
- Location: in the middle section of the book
- Type of basis: close witness.
- Verification marker: not found at all in the Wise Revelation
- Reading note: the location is appropriate because it denies that the combat meaning is a Qur’anic foundation, and attributes this linkage to the hadith industry.
Degree of documentation
- Level: structurally documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on more than one witness or on a clear synthesis of closely related phrases.
- Reason for classification: the text links combat martyrdom to reports and denies its Qur’anic origin.
- 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 argumentative; it supports or prepares a larger conclusion in the chapter.
Links
Editorial note
The atom concerns the origin of the meaning, not its details.