Meaning
Shahrur holds that alcohol and gambling do not appear in the Qur’anic text as prohibited from the outset, but rather as things enjoined against because of the sin and benefits they contain. Their description as defilement, meanwhile, indicates a state of ambiguity requiring avoidance, rather than an absolute prohibition.
Atom Structure in the Atlas
- Argument type: legislative.
- Argument movement: distinguishes between the Qur’anic injunction against and categorical prohibition in relation to alcohol and gambling.
- Central terms: alcohol, gambling, injunction, prohibition.
- Degree of centrality: pivotal.
It serves a broader construction that distinguishes among the degrees of discourse in the text and encourages the reader to understand rulings on the basis of injunction and avoidance rather than absolute prohibition.
Links That Aid Reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: Religion and Power
- Legislation, Limits, and Prohibition
- Prohibition
- Qur’anic Prohibitions Are Fixed, Whereas Injunction Is Left to Human Ijtihad
Evidence
- Supporting text: “Alcohol and gambling were not prohibited from the outset in the verse of al-Baqarah; rather, they were enjoined against because of the sin and benefits they contain, while ‘defilement’ in al-Ma’idah indicates the ambiguity that requires avoidance, not absolute prohibition.”
Location of Evidence in the Book
- Book: Religion and Power.
- Location: in the first section of the book.
- Type of evidence: close textual witness.
- Verification marker: in them is great sin and benefits.
- Reading note: this passage is suitable evidence because it explains alcohol and gambling as matters enjoined against, with a detailed account of the position of the verses, and is close to the atom’s formulation.
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 textually.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is definitional: it establishes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in constructing the idea.
Related to
Note to the Reader
The atom relies on a precise interpretive reading; it should therefore be linked to the concept of prohibitions in the series.