What is meant
Shahrur sees the Qur’an as combining scientific formulation and literary formulation; it is not limited to aesthetic expression alone. Therefore, its inimitability, for him, is functional, cognitive, and aesthetic at the same time.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: definitional
- Movement of the argument: describing the Qur’an as combining scientific and literary formulation.
- Key terms: Qur’an, scientific, literary, inimitability.
- Degree of centrality: central.
This determines the nature of the text in the author’s view as composite, so that he does not restrict it to rhetorical beauty or to cognitive exposition, but combines two effects at once.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur, The Book and the Qur’an
- The Book, the Qur’an, and the Mother of the Book
- The Qur’an
- Qur’anic understanding distinguishes between objective law and human choice
Basis
- Supporting text: “He states that the Qur’an combines scientific formulation and literary formulation, and that its inimitability is both functional and aesthetic.”
Place of support in the book
- Book: The Book and the Qur’an.
- Location: near the beginning of the book
- Type of support: close witness.
- Mark that helps verification: the historical scientific method
- Reading note: This location works as evidence because it speaks about the contemporary reading of revelation and the scientific presence in understanding, and it is close to the atom.
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on a direct 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 establishes a meaning or conceptual distinction that Shahrur relies on in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial note
This definition supports reading the Qur’an as a purposeful and cognitive text at once.