What is meant
This means that the killing of a human soul is forbidden, and no exception is made except for what is by right. And “right” here is linked to clear material evidence, and in particular to the case of deliberate murder. Therefore, judgment in this matter is not accepted on the basis of mere allegation or conjecture.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: legislative
- Movement of the argument: restricting the exception to killing a soul to a right grounded in evidence.
- Key terms: killing a soul, right, evidence, deliberate murder.
- Degree of centrality: original.
It establishes a narrow exception to the prohibition and ties legitimacy to the clarity of proof and the description of the act, leaving no room for conjecture or claim.
Links that help with reading
Basis
- Supporting text: “The fifth commandment forbids killing the human soul except by right, that is, after clear material evidence and in the case of deliberate murder.”
Location of the basis in the book
- Book: the Book and the Qur’an.
- Location: in the middle section of the book
- Type of basis: close witness.
- Marker that helps verification: ruling for deliberate murder and ruling for accidental killing
- Reading note: this passage is suitable as evidence because it links the rulings on killing to social development and divides them into intentional and accidental.
Degree of documentation
- Level: structurally documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on more than one witness or on a clear composition of closely related expressions.
- Reason for classification: the text mentions the prohibition and then specifies “right” through evidence and deliberate murder.
- Reading limits: 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 establishes a meaning or conceptual distinction that Shahrur relies on in building the idea.
Editorial note
The atom constitutes a governing principle in the chapter on bloodshed.