What Does the Definition Mean?
Here, fuʾād is the name of a cognitive function: direct perception connected with hearing and sight, rather than the name of a separate organ. The atom therefore focuses on its epistemic position as defined by the text, not on an anatomical interpretation.
What Is Attributed to Shahrur
The text defines the fuʾād as “the direct perception resulting from hearing and sight,” and adds that it is “a first stage of thought, not a separate organ.” The definition thus combines the two stated sources of perception—hearing and sight—with the description of the fuʾād as a first stage of thought.
Atlas Explanation
The Atlas understands this definition as shifting the meaning of the fuʾād from an organic sense to a cognitive function. This does not require adding stages not stated in the text; what is established here is direct perception and its being a first stage of thought.
Reading Connection
The broader context can be followed in Muhammad Shahrur, The Book and the Qur’an, with reference to The contemporary reading methodology and Human knowledge is relative and progresses from sensation to mathematics.
Open Question and Limits of the Evidence
This evidence alone does not establish that the fuʾād precedes reason or abstraction as specific terms, nor does it explain in detail the transition from this stage to other stages of knowledge. Its location is also indexed as “in the early sections of the book,” without a page number available in this package.
The Book and the Qur’an · Human knowledge is relative and progresses from sensation to mathematics