What is meant
What is meant is that the fear of God performs an educational function only if it is restricted to the specified prohibitions in the Revelation. Expanding it to include everything people dislike or do not want weakens its effect and deprives it of its legal discipline.
The structure of the atom in the atlas
- Type of argument: methodological
- Argument movement: it confines the fear of God to the specified prohibitions in the Revelation so that it remains a disciplined educational force.
- Key terms: fear of God, prohibitions, Revelation, educational guidance.
- Degree of centrality: central.
The atom explains that the educational value of fear works only if it remains within clear textual limits, and that broadening it weakens legal discipline and the intended meaning.
Reading aids
- Muhammad Shahrur State and Society
- Legislation, limits, and prohibition
- The story of Moses and the righteous servant symbolizes the conflict between knowledge and law
Basis
- Supporting text: “The effectiveness of the fear of God is conditioned on restricting it to the prohibitions mentioned in the Revelation, not on projecting it onto everything we do not want.”
Degree of documentation
- Level: synthetically documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on more than one witness or on a clear composition of close expressions.
- Reason for classification: the two witnesses confine the fear of God, in educational terms, to the specified prohibitions.
- Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary, and is not treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is transmitted textually.
Its function in the book
Its function here is argumentative; it supports a larger conclusion in the chapter or prepares for it.
Related to
Editorial note
The basis is composed of two witnesses close in meaning.