What is meant
Shahrur holds that the legal texts in the Qur’an are not understood as ready-made rulings for every situation, but rather require an elaboration that takes reality into account while remaining within the limits set by the decisive verses Accordingly, the decisive verses become the field of application, whereas true ijtihad lies in how they are elaborated and applied to different circumstances
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: legislative
- Movement of the argument: makes Qur’anic elaboration dependent on context without departing from the decisive text
- Key terms: Qur’anic legislation, elaboration, context, decisive verses.
- Degree of centrality: central.
This atom connects the text to the historical and social circumstance, but it restricts this connection by the decisive text. It explains how legislation shifts from a fixed origin to a variable application without losing its point of reference.
Links that help with reading
Basis
- Supporting text: “The decisive verses are not a field for ijtihad; rather, elaboration within them is the field of ijtihad. The report of the seven letters, in its various traditional formulations, is unreasonable in his view because it opens the door to synonymy and substitution in the words of revelation.”
Basis location in the book
- Book: Mother of the Book and Its Elaboration.
- Location: at the beginning of the book, within the discussion of the decisive verses and ijtihad.
- Type of basis: close witness.
- Mark that helps verification: ijtihad in its elaboration
- Reading note: This passage serves as a valid basis because it specifies the field of ijtihad in elaboration rather than in the essence of the decisive verses, and it is close to the atom.
Degree of documentation
- Level: structurally documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom is based on more than one witness or on a clear composition of closely related expressions.
- Reason for classification: the evidence combines methodological elaboration with a linkage to context and reality.
- 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 methodological; it sets the mode of reading or inference that the book follows.
Editorial note
It shows the interaction between stability and context in legislation.