Intended Meaning
Muhammad Shahrur defines the Sunna as what was attributed to the Messenger in terms of saying, action, and approval within historical conditions Accordingly, he does not consider it an independent second revelation separate from the Qur’an, but rather a field of human understanding tied to its context He also distinguishes it from wisdom, which he sees as what was revealed in the form of injunctions and moral and legal teachings
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: differentiating
- Movement of the argument: it separates the Sunna as a historical human trace from the binding Qur’anic revelation.
- Key terms: Sunna, revelation, history, wisdom.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
This atom establishes a decisive boundary in Shahrur’s framework between what is Qur’anic and fixed, and what is attributed to the Messenger within his historical circumstance. It also explains why he rereads the Sunna from within the Qur’an rather than from outside it.
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Basis
- Supporting text: «Concepts and terms: Sunna: for him, it is not a second revelation, but rather what was attributed to the Messenger in terms of saying, action, and approval within historical conditions. Wisdom: it is not synonymous with the Sunna, but rather what was revealed in the form of injunctions and moral and legal teachings».
Place of the Basis in the Book
- Book: the messengerly Sunna and the prophetic Sunna.
- Location: in the first section of the book within the distinction between wisdom and the Sunna.
- Type of basis: close evidence.
- Marker that helps verification: from wisdom
- Reading note: this passage is suitable as support because it interprets what is in the verse of al-Isra’ as injunctions and teachings revealed to the prophets, not as an independent second revelation.
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 cited in full.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is definitional; it sets out a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in building the idea.
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Editorial Note
The analytical formulation shows the effect of this distinction on the method, whereas the witness remains a denial that the Sunna is a second revelation.