What Does Shahrur Say?
The evidence attributes to Shahrur a direct specification of the term’s meaning: “those in authority” are the people vested with legislative authority, not executive rulers.
This specification establishes a distinction between the sphere of legislation and the sphere of execution, and does not permit treating them as synonymous in reading this passage.
Atlas Explanation
The function of this atom is to define the meaning of “those in authority” within an argument concerning authority: what is meant is not everyone who exercises rule, but the body described here as possessing legislative authority. Accordingly, the phrase should not be read as an automatic attribution of absolute political authority to executive rulers.
Limited Inference
This distinction can be connected to a reading of questions of civil authority, without the evidence alone implying that it offers a complete institutional model of the state or explains the distribution of powers in detail.
Open Question and Limits of the Evidence
The available evidence does not indicate how the people vested with legislative authority are constituted, how they are selected, the limits of their powers, or their relationship to the executive authority. These remain matters requiring other evidence from the book.
For related reading: Muhammad Shahrur: The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna, The Civil State, Religion, and Authority, Intellectual change precedes political change.
The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna · Intellectual change precedes political change