Intended Meaning
Shahrur sees the prohibitions in the Wise Revelation as fixed and closed, and human legislation may not add anything to them or subtract anything from them. But prohibition (nahy) is not a final interdiction; rather, it is a contingent regulation that the legislative authority may codify according to the public interest. Therefore, some acts may be forbidden in one context and permitted in another without becoming religious prohibitions.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: legislative
- Movement of the argument: it confines prohibitions to revelation and prevents human legislation from adding to them.
- Central terms: prohibitions, human legislation, prohibition (nahy).
- Degree of centrality: primary.
The atom draws a dividing line between what the divine text establishes and what civil reasoning determines, thereby preventing the expansion of the sphere of prohibition beyond its original referent.
Links That Help Reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: Religion and Authority
- Legislation, Limits, and Prohibition
- The Qur’anic prohibitions are fixed, while prohibition (nahy) is left to human reasoning
Basis
- Supporting text: «The forbidden in the Wise Revelation is specific, confined, and closed, and no one after God has the right to add to it or subtract from it. Prohibition is not interdiction; rather, it is a contingent regulation that is left to the legislative authority to codify according to the public interest. Spying, backbiting, and consuming wealth unjustly, among other things, are not all on the same level; some are forbidden and some are permitted in specific cases».
Place of the Basis in the Book
- Book: Religion and Authority.
- Location: in the final section of the book, within his discussion of legislative authority and the regulation of the permissible.
- Type of basis: proximate evidence.
- Marker that helps verification: and no one has the right
- Reading note: this passage serves as a valid basis because it shows that the role of authority is to regulate the permissible, not to invent new prohibitions.
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 formulation above is an analytical summary, and is not treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted word for word.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is argumentative; it supports a larger conclusion in the chapter or prepares the ground for it.
Related To
Editorial Note
It should be read together with the atom that prohibition is not interdiction so that the meaning is complete.