The Intended Meaning
Shahrur argues that some legislative texts draw an upper limit or a lower limit, and leave the mujtahid space to move between these two limits. Therefore, ijtihad is not outside the text, but within the field it allows, according to changing objective circumstances
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: methodological
- Movement of the argument: ijtihad moves between an upper limit and a lower limit within the text.
- Key terms: ijtihad, upper limit, lower limit, text.
- Degree of centrality: foundational.
This atom gives ijtihad a regulated field: it is neither absolute outside the text nor bound by its rigid literalism. In this way, it makes legislation a movement within previously drawn limits.
Links that help with reading
Basis
- Supporting text: “Shahrur offers a limit-based reading of legislation: some texts set an upper limit and sometimes a lower limit, and ijtihad is left to move between them according to objective circumstances.”
Place of the Basis in the Book
- Book: The Book and the Qur’an.
- Location: in the middle section of the book, in the discussion of ijtihad and objective limits.
- Type of basis: near evidence.
- Marker that helps verification: objective limits
- Reading note: This passage is appropriate because it states that ijtihad moves between clear limits according to circumstances, and it is close to 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 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 methodological; it regulates the way of reading or inference that the book follows.
Links
- The two limits
Editorial Note
This is one of the atoms that establishes Shahrur’s method in limit-based reading.