What is meant
Muhammad Shahrur holds that the Ten Commandments constitute a general ethical framework valid for all times and places. For him, they are connected to social conduct and to the organization of ethical and family life, not to ritual acts of worship
The structure of the atom in the atlas
- Type of argument: value-based
- Direction of the argument: it makes the commandments a general ethical framework, not a ritual one.
- Key terms: the Ten Commandments, values, ethics.
- Degree of centrality: central.
The atom links the commandments to the organization of social and family life, placing them in the sphere of general values rather than within rites, which clarifies the multiplicity of the text’s functions.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: The Book and the Qur’an
- Islam, faith, and righteous action
- The commandments regulate ethical, social, and family life
Basis
- Supporting text: «Shahrur distinguishes between three domains: legislative limits, commandments/social values, and individual rituals, and يرى أن confusing them is at the root of the jurisprudential crisis. He interprets the “Ten Commandments” as a general ethical framework suitable for every time and place, linking them to social conduct rather than to rituals».
Location of the basis in the book
- Book: The Book and the Qur’an.
- Location: near the beginning of the book, within the presentation of the book’s structure and purposes
- Type of basis: close evidence.
- Marker that helps verification: as an ethical standard
- Reading note: the passage distinguishes between limits and commandments and makes the commandments a shared ethical standard among prophets, which is very close to the content of the atom.
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on an explicit 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 cited textually.
Its function in the book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial note
It helps separate general ethics from rulings and rituals.