What is meant
The civil state, according to Shahrur, is based on citizenship, not on religious or sectarian affiliation. It is also based on multiparty pluralism, separation of powers, and freedom of expression, as necessary conditions for organizing governance.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: Political
- Movement of the argument: It makes citizenship, pluralism, and separation of powers the foundation of the state.
- Key terms: civil state, citizenship, pluralism, separation of powers.
- Degree of centrality: Original.
It establishes the idea of the state as a civil, not sectarian, framework, and links governance to the conditions of participation and freedom rather than to religious or sectarian affiliation.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur, Religion and Authority
- The Civil State, Religion, and Authority
- The civil state
- Citizenship
- Pluralism
Grounding
- Supporting text: «The civil state is based on citizenship, multiparty pluralism, separation of powers, and freedom of expression».
Place of the grounding in the book
- Book: Religion and Authority.
- Location: in the final section of the book, within the discussion of good governance and separation of powers.
- Type of grounding: Nearby witness.
- Marker that helps verification: separation of powers and freedom of expression
- Reading note: The paragraph links the civil state to pluralism, freedom of expression, and the protection of rights, which clearly matches the atom’s content.
Degree of documentation
- Level: Directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on an explicit witness close to the formulation 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 declarative; it establishes a conclusion on which what follows in the argument depends.
Related to
Editorial note
This atom is among the broadest, because it brings together the definition of the state and its political conditions.