The intended meaning
Al-fatā and al-fatāh here do not indicate age, but rather the companion of another person, or one who stays with another person. The relationship between them may be one of service and care for another person.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: interpretive
- Argument movement: al-fatā and al-fatāh indicate companionship, not age.
- Key terms: al-fatā, al-fatāh, companion, service.
- Degree of centrality: subsidiary.
This atom resets the meaning of two common terms by referring them to companionship and service, not to age, thereby revealing the effect of conventional reading in understanding the text.
Links that help with reading
Basis
- Supporting text: «al-fatā/al-fatāh: the companion or the one who stays with another person, and he may have a service».
Related verses
Place of the basis in the book
- Book: The State and Society.
- Location: in the final section of the book, within the interpretation of vocabulary
- Type of basis: direct witness.
- Verification marker: the person who is a companion, attendant, and one who stays close
- Reading note: the location is valid because it defines al-fatā as the companion, attendant, and one who stays close, which is very close to the meaning of the atom.
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of the reading: the wording above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is cited word for word.
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.
Editorial note
The meaning has been restricted to the intended interpretive signification.