Intended Meaning
The term is used here in a specific description of God’s testimony: it is not like human testimony, but rather an immediate and knowing encompassing of existence. The statement should therefore not be understood as a general definition of every use of “testimony” in the book.
What Is Attributed to Shahrur
The quoted text states: “His testimony is not like human testimony; rather, it is an immediate and knowing encompassing of existence.” This is the direct claim established by the atom.
Atlas Explanation
The text distinguishes between God’s testimony and human testimony without, in the available witness, explaining the characteristics of human testimony in detail. The explanation is therefore limited to establishing that the descriptions “immediate” and “knowing” are applied to God’s testimony in this passage, rather than constituting an independent lexical definition of every word in the statement.
Synthetic Conclusion
The statement can be understood as distinguishing between two models of testimony: God’s testimony, described as an immediate and knowing encompassing, and human testimony, which the text denies is comparable to it. The specific aspects of the difference, however, cannot be derived from this witness alone.
Open Question and Reading Limit
The raw context of the quotation is unavailable. This atom alone therefore cannot determine the interpretive path on which Shahrur based this description, or connect it in detail to his discussion of the witness and the witness-bearer elsewhere. For the broader line of argument in the book, see Muhammad Shahrur Islam and Faith, and for the general thematic context, see Islam, Faith, and Righteous Deeds.