Intended meaning
In this usage, “slave” means human beings in general, whether free or owned. So what is meant by the term here is not enslavement alone; it includes every human being.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: interpretive
- Direction of the argument: expands the meaning of “slave” to include human beings in general, not enslavement alone.
- Central terms: slave, human being, owned person, free person.
- Degree of centrality: subordinate.
This atom offers a semantic reading of the term “slave” and prevents restricting it to enslavement, thereby opening the way to a broader understanding of Qur’anic discourse within Shahrur’s method.
Reading aids
- Muhammad Shahrur: The State and Society
- The Book, the Qur’an, and the Mother of the Book
- Human being
Basis
- Supporting text: “Slave: a human being in general, whether free or owned.”
Location of the basis in the book
- Book: The State and Society.
- Location: in the middle section of the book, within the discussion of the concepts of society and the state.
- Type of basis: close evidence.
- Marker to help verification: slave: a human being in general
- Reading note: this passage is suitable as support because it returns the term “slave” to human beings in general within a social interpretive context.
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 the reading: the wording above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is transmitted word for word.
Its function in the book
Its function here is definitional; it sets out a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in building the idea.
Editorial note
The interpretation here is lexical-semantic rather than normative.