Shahrur’s Statement
The witness states that “the future unseen cannot be known with certainty by human beings,” explaining that such knowledge “negates freedom and responsibility and turns history into a course predetermined in advance.”
How to Read the Atom
The argument here links the limit of human knowledge of the future to the preservation of human action as a sphere of freedom and responsibility. If the future were known with certainty in the manner stated in the witness, history would become—according to the text’s formulation—a course predetermined in advance.
Limits of the Meaning
This witness alone does not explain the meaning of the unseen in detail, address divine knowledge or destiny, or deny forms of expectation or non-certain knowledge. It is limited to denying certain human knowledge of the future unseen.