What is meant
Destiny here is not what a person imagines about things or their interpretation of them, but their existence outside human consciousness. Shahrur expresses this as follows: “Destiny: the objective existence of things outside human consciousness.”
What is attributed to Shahrur
Shahrur offers a direct definition of destiny: “Destiny: the objective existence of things outside human consciousness.”
In the same context, he writes: “Death is destiny, and killing is judgment.” This indicates a distinction here between the two terms, without this page by itself completing a definition of judgment.
Atlas explanation
The page explains the definition more simply: destiny is the name for the existence of things as they are outside human perception. The definition alone should therefore not be turned into a claim that destiny is synonymous with mental conception or human interpretation.
For reading in the context of the book: Muhammad Shahrur, The Book and the Qur’an, see also: The Book, the Qur’an, and the Mother of the Book.
Limited inference
Based on the wording of the definition, the focus of the term here is the objective existence of things and its relation to human awareness of them, not merely human knowledge of that existence.
Open question and limits of the reading
Does this definition alone entail a detailed position on human freedom and determinism? The passage does not settle that on its own. It is necessary to consult the passages in which Shahrur addresses judgment, destiny, and freedom together.