Meaning
Shahrur holds that human values are the foundation upon which society and the state rest, not rituals alone. The state’s task therefore becomes protecting, educating, and qualifying the human being, and guaranteeing their rights.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Argument type: value-based.
- Argumentative move: It makes human values the basis for the establishment of the state and society, rather than being content with rituals.
- Central terms: human values, the state, society, rituals.
- Degree of centrality: central.
It establishes that, for Shahrur, the criterion of political and social construction is human value and human rights, and it directs the role of the state toward protection, education, and qualification rather than formalistic religiosity.
Links That Aid Reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: State and Society
- The Civil State, Religion, and Authority
- Falsehood and Tyranny Corrupt Morality, While Morality Remains Constant Above Politics
Evidence
- Supporting text: “He maintains that human values, rather than rituals, are the foundation of the state and society, and that the duty of the state is to protect, educate, and qualify the human being and guarantee their rights.”
Location of Evidence in the Book
- Book: State and Society.
- Location: in the middle section of the book.
- Type of evidence: close textual evidence.
- Verification aid: the separation of rituals from the state.
- Reading note: the passage supports the atom because it explicitly states that human values, not rituals, are the foundation of the state and society.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented.
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on explicit evidence close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of interpretation: the wording above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the supporting text is quoted directly.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is declarative: it establishes a conclusion on which the subsequent course of the argument relies.
Related To
Note to the Reader
The wording summarizes a direct normative claim supported by textual evidence close to the source text.