Intended Meaning
Shahrur holds that the jurisprudential edifice in al-Shafi’i was built on a synonymy between speech and utterance, and he considers this synonymy incorrect Hence, it led to elevating the Sunna to a status parallel to the Revelation, indeed sometimes to a position that could abrogate it
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: Critical
- Argument movement: Equating speech with utterance is rejected because it produces an authority parallel to the Revelation.
- Key terms: speech, utterance, al-Shafi’i, Sunna, Revelation.
- Degree of centrality: Pivotal.
This atom critiques a linguistic premise in a jurisprudential construction, and connects it to implications of authority in the ordering of sources. It seeks to remove the equation between human speech and the foundational text.
Reading Aids
- Muhammad Shahrur, The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna
- Critique of Heritage, Jurisprudence, and Exegesis
- Sunna
Support
- Supporting text: “Shahrur attacks al-Shafi’i’s jurisprudential construction on the basis of synonymy between speech and utterance, and argues that this construction led to making the Sunna a source parallel to the Revelation, indeed at times abrogating it.”
Location of the Support in the Book
- Book: The Messengerly Sunna and the Prophetic Sunna.
- Location: In the first section of the book, in the discussion of the difference between speech and utterance when arguing for the thesis of the two revelations.
- Type of support: Near witness.
- Identifying marker: The difference between speech and utterance
- Reading note: This passage is suitable as support because it explicitly states the need to affirm the difference between speech and utterance, which is the core of the present atom.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: Directly documented
- Meaning of the level: The atom relies on a clear 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 quoted textually.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is argumentative; it supports a larger conclusion in the chapter or prepares for it.
Editorial Note
It dismantles a linguistic foundation in the construction of jurisprudential authority.