What is meant
This statement holds that human history is not subject to a determinism comparable to the determinism of the laws of nature, because the human being is a free agent who chooses and changes. Therefore, it is not valid to apply the logic of nature to human society or to treat it as if it were a fixed, unchanging course.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: Methodological
- Argument movement: It separates the laws of nature from the course of human history.
- Key terms: human history, determinism, nature, freedom.
- Degree of centrality: Central.
The atom prevents the projection of natural determinism onto human society, and affirms that human freedom changes the course and opens the way to action and choice instead of fixity.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur al-Qasas al-Qur’ani Vol. 1
- History, Evolution, and Sunan
- Freedom
- The Qur’anic narrative explains history, it does not merely recount it
Basis
- Supporting text: “Human history is not governed by a determinism similar to the determinism of the laws of nature, because the human being is a free agent.”
Basis location in the book
- Book: The Qur’anic Narrative, Vol. 1.
- Location: In the first section of the book, within the treatment of the text’s historicity and its interpretation.
- Type of basis: Close witness.
- Verification marker: it is subject to what heritage is subject to
- Reading note: The passage speaks about the character of the text, its history, and its human understanding, and it is consistent with the idea that human history is not as deterministic as the laws of nature, because human action and understanding enter into it.
Degree of documentation
- Level: Directly documented
- Meaning of the level: The atom relies on an explicit witness that is close to the formulation 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 verbatim.
Its function in the book
Its function here is declarative; it establishes a result on which what follows depends in the course of the argument.
Related to
Editorial note
The atom is methodological because it determines the type of law that explains history.