What is meant here?
The witness presents universality and finality together as connected to the form of the message: it permits renewed ijtihad, but this renewal does not go beyond its boundaries. Thus, “boundary-based” here is not read as the opposite of universality, but as a constraint regulating the ijtihad that Shahrur links to the message’s universality and finality.
What is attributed to Shahrur
Shahrur says: “The Muhammadan message is final and universal because it came in an abstract, boundary-based form that permits renewed human ijtihad within its boundaries.” The text establishes three interconnected elements: the message’s finality and universality, its abstract and boundary-based form, and the possibility of renewed human ijtihad within its boundaries.
Atlas explanation
The page records a specific claim from the book and does not expand it into a complete theory of legislation. The phrase “within its boundaries” is part of the claim itself: ijtihad is possible in Shahrur’s formulation, but it is not unrestricted. For the broader context, see Muhammad Shahrur, The Mother of the Book and Its Elaboration and The Book, the Qur’an, and the Mother of the Book.
Synthetic conclusion
At a synthetic level, this connection can be understood as an attempt to combine the stability of the framework with the possibility of human renewal: stability concerns the boundaries, while renewal concerns the ijtihad that takes place within them. This is, however, a description of the structure of the statement, not a detailed definition of the content of those boundaries.
Open question
What boundaries does Shahrur mean specifically? And how does he establish a practical criterion for distinguishing between ijtihad that falls within them and ijtihad that exceeds them? The isolated witness does not answer this, and answering it requires tracing other passages in the book. See also The Muhammadan message.