What Is Meant
Shahrur rejects the principle of synonymy because he considers it one of the roots of confusion in the traditional system He sees acceptance of synonymy as weakening the control of meaning and obscuring the signification of the words of revelation For that reason, he links it to a critique of the inherited structure that depends on overlap between words and meanings
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: Critical
- Movement of the argument: He rejects synonymy because it disrupts control of meaning in traditional reading.
- Key terms: synonymy, confusion, meaning, the traditional system.
- Degree of centrality: Central.
It serves his linguistic project by rejecting the equivalence of words, because that weakens semantic distinction and affects the understanding of the text and the disentangling of its overlaps.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur, Mother of the Book and Its Elaboration
- Critique of Heritage, Jurisprudence, and Exegesis
- The Qurayshi tongue and the unity of the text support a linguistic, non-synonymous epistemic project
Grounding
- Supporting text: «He rejects the principle of synonymy as one of the roots of confusion in the traditional system».
Place of the Grounding in the Book
- Book: Mother of the Book and Its Elaboration.
- Location: Near the beginning of the book, within the critique of the traditional system and the sources of confusion in it.
- Type of grounding: Close witness.
- Marker that helps verification: The root of this system’s problem
- Reading note: This location is suitable because it states that synonymy is the root of the problem and of confusion, and it is close to the atom in his critique.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: Directly documented
- Meaning of the level: The atom relies on a clear 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 verbatim.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is argumentative; it supports a larger conclusion in the chapter or prepares the way for it.
Related to
- The Qurayshi tongue and the unity of the text support a linguistic, non-synonymous epistemic project
Editorial Note
The atom tends toward a linguistic foundation that needs to be connected to the method of the text as a whole.