Intended Meaning
Shahrur defines injustice as placing a thing in the wrong place, or making a wrong decision deliberately while knowing it is wrong. Here, the criterion is not merely error, but the deliberate placement of a thing outside its proper place.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: definitional
- Movement of the argument: injustice is placing a thing in the wrong place on purpose.
- Key terms: injustice, place, purpose, error.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
The atom offers a conceptual definition of injustice that ties it to deliberate misordering, thus serving to build a clear ethical standard that distinguishes between incidental error and intended deviation.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: The State and Society
- Legislation, Limits, and Prohibition
- Injustice
- Falsehood and despotism corrupt morals, while morals remain fixed above politics
Basis
- Supporting text: “Injustice: placing a thing in the wrong place, or the deliberately wrong decision while knowing it is wrong.”
Location of the basis in the book
- Book: The State and Society.
- Location: in the first section of the book
- Type of basis: close witness
- Verification cue: making the wrong decision deliberately
- Reading note: the text defines injustice as the wrong decision deliberately and knowingly, which is very close to the atom’s content.
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 exactly.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction that Shahrur relies on in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial Note
The definitional structure has been preserved while simplifying the phrasing.