What is Meant
Shahrur holds that understanding the Qur’anic text does not rest on dictionary meaning alone, but requires a scientific, historical, and linguistic method. For this reason, he makes language, thought, and history essential elements in reading the Qur’an correctly, while linking meaning to the development of human knowledge
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: methodological
- Movement of the argument: it stipulates a scientific historical linguistic method for understanding the Qur’anic text.
- Central terms: method, language, history, the Qur’an.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
This atom places the reading tool before the conclusions, and links understanding of the text to the interaction of language, history, and science rather than relying on the direct dictionary meaning alone.
Links That Help with Reading
- Muhammad Shahrur, The Book and the Qur’an
- The contemporary reading method
- History
- The Qur’an
- Interpretation is the criterion for matching report with reality and reason
Basis
- Supporting text: «Shahrur links understanding of the Qur’anic text to a scientific historical linguistic method».
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom is based on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary, and is not treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted textually.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is methodological; it sets the mode of reading or inference that the book follows.
Related to
Editorial Note
This atom represents a general methodological key in the project.