Meaning
It means that the constitution is not a sacred text or fixed by nature; rather, it is a human formulation that regulates the social contract among people. As for the covenant, it occupies an earlier and deeper rank than the constitution, because it is grounded in human values and voluntary commitment.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: Political
- Argument movement: It makes the constitution a human formulation of the social contract, while the covenant precedes it and is deeper.
- Key terms: constitution, social contract, covenant, voluntary commitment.
- Degree of centrality: Central.
This atom establishes a separation between legal reference and sanctity, and gives political organization a human character that can change within the framework of human values.
Reading aids
- Muhammad Shahrur, Religion and Power
- The Civil State, Religion, and Power
- The covenant
- Kindness to Parents Is an Innate Value, and Punishment in It Is Subject to the Legal Limits
Basis
- Supporting text: «It establishes the idea that the constitution should be a human formulation for regulating the social contract, while the covenant precedes it and is deeper, and is linked to human values and voluntary commitment».
Place of support in the book
- Book: Religion and Power.
- Location: In the final section of the book, within the comparison between forms of organization and voluntary acceptance.
- Type of support: Close evidence.
- Verification marker: It relies on the authority of conscience alone
- Reading note: The location is appropriate because it describes the social and political structure in the language of voluntary commitment and acceptance, which is close to the idea of the social contract.
Degree of documentation
- Level: Directly documented
- Meaning of the level: The atom is based on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of reading: The formulation above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the evidence is quoted textually.
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.
Related to
Editorial note
The atom balances civil law and moral value.