The established text
The book states: “The concept of sovereignty developed through three stages: divine sovereignty, then the sovereignty of vicegerency.” This establishes that sovereignty is presented as a concept that develops through stages, rather than as a single fixed form.
What does this evidence not establish?
The quoted statement names only two stages, although it declares that there are three. It is therefore not permissible to infer the name of the third stage from this statement alone.
Human sovereignty in a later passage
In an account that Shahrur explicitly attributes to Abu al-Qasim Haj Hamad, it states: “Abu al-Qasim Haj Hamad holds that human sovereignty is ‘the most dangerous stage addressed by the divine discourse to humanity since the discourse of divine sovereignty and the sovereignty of vicegerency. God has gradually led humanity to govern itself, and this is His purpose in creation—a purpose that God brought to its establishment through the “Seal of the Prophets,” in the “forbidden” land, and for which He made the great “Qur’an” a methodology.’”
As Shahrur continues presenting this view attributed to Haj Hamad, he describes the mission of the Seal of the Prophets: “His mission came as the conclusion of ‘divine sovereignty’ and the ‘sovereignty of vicegerency,’ and as the opening of the stage of ‘human sovereignty,’ which is related to God in the unseen, without tangible or visible forms.” This clarifies a possible context for reading the third stage, but it remains an account of Haj Hamad’s view rather than a complete enumeration in the first passage.
Further reading
See Muhammad Shahrur, Religion and Authority, History, Development, and Laws, and situate the idea within sovereignty, then return to Divine sovereignty as the stage of direct dominance.