What is meant
Shahrur interprets the miracles of earlier prophets as temporal leaps that reveal, at an earlier time, what would later become possible in the sensible world. They are not an absolute departure from the laws of nature, but rather an advance in the realization of possibility or in the apprehension of the law.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: analytical
- Movement of the argument: it reinterprets the miracle as a temporal precedence within the law, not a violation of it.
- Key terms: miracle, time, natural law, prophets.
- Degree of centrality: subsidiary.
This atom helps explain the relationship between interpretation and natural law in Shahrur’s thought. The earlier miracle is not read as a suspension of reason or of nature, but as a state that precedes human capacity or the knowledge available in its time.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: the Book and the Qur’an
- Sensory interpretation and theoretical interpretation
- Interpretation as a criterion for matching report with reality and reason
- Interpretation
Basis
- Supporting text: “a temporal leap forward.”
Place of support in the book
- Book: The Book and the Qur’an.
- Location: in the section related to interpretation, miracles, and clear signs.
- Type of support: close evidence.
- Marker that helps verification: a temporal leap forward
- Reading note: the passage explains examples such as raising the dead and the fire of Abraham as a prior realization of the possible, not a negation of the principle of law.
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 formulation 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 to connect the concept of miracle with the theory of interpretation and with the idea of objective law.
Related to
Editorial note
The atom does not deny the distinctive character of Muhammad’s miracle in Shahrur’s thought; rather, it explains the difference between the miracles of earlier prophets and the eternal Qur’anic miracle.