Intended Meaning
The intended meaning is that, according to Shahrur, the adultery verse concerns open, public lewdness visible to people, not every prohibited relationship in absolute terms. It also requires four witnesses, and he excludes the possibility that it applies to rape.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: legislative
- Movement of the argument: limits the adultery verse to public lewdness and conditions it on witnesses.
- Central terms: adultery, public lewdness, the four witnesses, rape.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
It defines the scope of the criminal ruling and distinguishes between forms of assault and an overt relationship, thereby reducing ambiguity between the offense, its proof, and the conditions of proof.
Links to help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: Um al-Kitab and Its Elaboration
- Legislation, Limits, and Prohibition
- Qur’anic punishments are civil limits that can be regulated, not fixed corporal procedures
Support
- Supporting text: “The adultery verse pertains to public lewdness, requires the four witnesses, and does not apply to rape.”
Location of Support in the Book
- Book: Um al-Kitab and Its Elaboration.
- Location: in the final section of the book
- Type of support: close evidence.
- Marker that helps verification: public lewdness
- Reading note: this passage is suitable as evidence because it defines adultery as public lewdness and conditions it on the four witnesses.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on an explicit witness that is close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of the reading: the wording above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted word for word.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in constructing the idea.
Related to
Editorial Note
A pivotal atom in his chapter on limits.