What is meant
Analogy here means reducing the new matter to an old, fixed original, so that the new is understood through what it resembles in the original. It is based on returning to the prior reference, not on inventing an independent ruling for the new case.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: methodological
- Argument movement: it describes analogy as returning the new to a prior fixed original.
- Key terms: analogy, the new, the original, the ruling.
- Degree of centrality: central.
It shows that the analogical method does not create an independent ruling for the new case, but rather refers it back to an acknowledged precedent, which limits the possibility of jurisprudential innovation.
Reading aids
- Muhammad Shahrur the Qur’an in Contemporary Thought
- Critique of heritage, jurisprudence, and exegesis
- The contemporary reading of the Qur’an breaks with inherited tradition and rests on a scientific method
Basis
- Supporting text: “Analogy / returning to the original.”
Basis location in the book
- Book: The Qur’an in Contemporary Thought.
- Location: in the first section of the book
- Type of basis: close evidence.
- Marker that helps verification: the city is based on plurality
- Reading note: this location is suitable as evidence because it explains the distinction between the city and the village on the basis of analogy to the social original.
Documentation level
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is transmitted textually.
Its function in the book
Its function here is argumentative; it supports a larger result in the chapter or prepares for it.
Related to
Editorial note
The atom is an operational definition of an analogical concept.