What is meant
Shahrur sees the Qur’anic narrative as recounting historical events that took place in the past, but it is not a field for legislation. Therefore, no binding ruling is derived from it, because, for him, legislation belongs to the message, not to the narrative.
The structure of the atom in the atlas
- Type of argument: differentiating
- Movement of the argument: it separates the function of the narrative in historical lesson from the function of the message in legislation.
- Central terms: the Qur’anic narrative, history, legislation, the message.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
This atom prevents confusing what is narrated for admonition with what establishes the ruling. In this way, it places the Qur’anic narrative in its explanatory position within Shahrur’s project.
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Basis
- Supporting text: «The Qur’anic narrative is historical in that it recounts events that have passed, but it is non-legislative, so no binding ruling is derived from it except in the message, not in the narrative».
The basis’s location in the book
- Book: The Qur’anic Narrative, vol. 1.
- Location: at the beginning of the book
- Type of basis: close witness.
- Verification cue: Is the Qur’anic narrative a book in history?
- Reading note: The passage raises the question of narrative as history or philosophy, and does not turn it into legislation; therefore it serves as a close basis for the atom.
Degree of documentation
- 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 is not treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted verbatim.
Its function in the book
Its function here is definitional; it establishes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial note
The analytical formulation explains the limits of inference from the narrative, while the witness remains the point of documentation.