Intended Meaning
By ulū al-amr here is meant the people of legislative authority, not the executive rulers. So the intended “authority” is the authority to make law and legislate, not the authority of execution or direct rule.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: legislative
- Argument movement: it makes ulū al-amr the people of legislation, not execution.
- Central terms: ulū al-amr, legislative authority, execution.
- Degree of centrality: pivotal.
This atom confines the meaning of ulū al-amr to the sphere of legislation, and prevents its automatic transfer to executive rulers or to an absolute political authority.
Links that help reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna
- The Civil State, Religion, and Authority
- Intellectual change precedes political change
Grounding
- Supporting text: “Ulū al-amr: in his view, the people of legislative authority, not the executive rulers.”
Place of the Grounding in the Book
- Book: The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna.
- Location: in the final section of the book, in the explanation of the meaning of ulū al-amr.
- Type of grounding: near witness.
- Marker that helps verification: directing legislative authority
- Reading note: this passage is suitable as evidence because it links ulū al-amr to directing legislative authority and enacting laws.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests 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 transmitted word for word.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial Note
The atom has a direct effect on the conception of civil authority.