Purpose
Muhammad Shahrur defines the soul as not the secret of life, but the secret of humanization and the emergence of thought and language. For him, it is what distinguishes the human being and marks the transition from mere biological life to the level of the rational human being.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: definitional
- Argument movement: he defines the soul as the secret of humanization, not the secret of biological life.
- Central terms: soul, humanization, thought, language.
- Degree of centrality: central.
It shifts the soul from a biological meaning to an epistemic human meaning, making it the key to thought and language. This definition links the emergence of the rational human being to the principle of humanization.
Links that help with reading
Basis
- Supporting text: “The soul: not the secret of life, but the secret of humanization and the emergence of thought and language.”
Place of the basis in the book
- Book: The Book and the Qur’an.
- Location: early in the book, within the chapter on the problem of human knowledge.
- Type of basis: close witness.
- Verification marker: the soul is the secret of humanization
- Reading note: the cited phrase explicitly states that the soul is the secret of humanization, which corresponds almost exactly to the atom without the need for distant interpretation.
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 wording above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted textually.
Its function in the book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction that Shahrur relies on in constructing the idea.
Editorial note
The atom preserves the distinction between life and humanization as in the witness.