Intended Meaning
For him, a report is the transmission of what the reporter has attended and witnessed himself. Therefore, it can be either true or false depending on its correspondence to what occurred in presence and testimony.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: definitional
- Movement of the argument: it makes the report a transmission of what a person has attended and witnessed.
- Key terms: report, presence, testimony, truth and falsehood.
- Degree of centrality: central.
It builds a standard for the report on the basis of direct observation, thus helping to distinguish direct transmission from what may admit addition or omission in meaning.
Reading Aids
- Muhammad Shahrur: Umm al-Kitab and Its Elaboration
- the contemporary reading method
- report
- testimony
- The Qurashi tongue and the unity of the text support a non-synonymous linguistic epistemic project
Grounding
- Supporting text: “The report: the transmission of what the reporter has attended and witnessed, and it is susceptible to truth and falsehood.”
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests 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 transmitted textually.
Function in the Book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction that Shahrur relies on in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial Note
The atom supports his distinction between report and tidings.