Summary of the Thesis

Shahrur argues that the Qur’anic narrative reveals the laws of history through the transformations of societies, and shows that human beings participate freely in making history. History, therefore, is not an automatic course, but a field of action and choice.

Foundational Atoms

Place of Support within the Book

This axis becomes clear in the first section and then the last, where the author links freedom, historical law, and the impossibility of repeating causes in a single form.

Limits of the Reading

This understanding presents history as an open field, but it does not eliminate the effect of social conditions or the differences between eras.