What is meant
This means that the movement of history is not a force separate from human beings, but is made by human beings through their renewing acts. History here is the result of human action, not a course governed by rigid necessity alone.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: historical
- Direction of the argument: makes the human being the principal agent in the movement of history.
- Key terms: human being, history, action, transformation.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
The atom attributes the making of history to renewed human action and removes it from any explanation that would reduce it to an external force alone, so that the human being becomes responsible for their historical course.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur al-Qasas al-Qur’ani vol. 1
- History, evolution, and the Sunan
- human being
- history
- The Qur’anic narrative explains history, not merely recounts it
Grounding
- Supporting text: «“The human being is the active and principal agent in the movement of history”».
Location of the grounding in the book
- Book: al-Qasas al-Qur’ani vol. 1.
- Location: in the first section of the book within the discussion of the becoming of history.
- Type of grounding: direct witness.
- Marker helping verification: the active and principal agent in the movement of history
- Reading note: this location is suitable because it explicitly states that the human being is the active and principal agent in the movement of history, which matches the atom.
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 formulation above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a literal quotation unless the witness is quoted verbatim.
Its function in the book
Its function here is declarative; it establishes a result on which what follows in the argument depends.
Related to
Editorial note
An atom foundational to understanding history from within human action.