Intended meaning
Prayer here means an affective and spiritual relationship with God, and is not the ritual alone. As for rituals, they are the devotional practices in which room is left for ijtihad and institutional organization. For this reason, the author distinguishes between prayer as an inward bond and prayer as a ritual.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: Distinguishing
- Movement of the argument: It separates prayer as an inward relationship from ritual as an organized act.
- Central terms: prayer, ritual, affective relationship, institutional ijtihad.
- Degree of centrality: Central.
It establishes a semantic distinction between the meaning of prayer and the meaning of ritual, thereby opening the reading to the spiritual dimension on the one hand and to devotional organization on the other.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur, Mother of the Book and Its Elaboration
- The Book, the Qur’an, and the Mother of the Book
- Religion is a free relationship with God that distinguishes between the historical message and ethical commitment
Basis
- Supporting text: “Prayer: here a felt relationship with God, not the ritual alone. Rituals: devotional practices in which space is left for institutional ijtihad and organization.”
Place of the basis in the book
- Book: Mother of the Book and Its Elaboration.
- Location: In the early part of the book, when presenting his division of the concepts of revelation and distinguishing between types of verses.
- Type of basis: Close witness.
- Mark that helps verification: Triple division of the verses of revelation
- Reading note: The location is suitable as support because it provides a conceptual framework that distinguishes between levels of religious discourse, and it is close to the atom that makes prayer a relationship, not merely a ritual.
Degree of documentation
- Level: Structurally documented
- Meaning of the level: The atom relies on more than one witness or on a clear composition of close expressions.
- Reason for classification: The passages separate prayer as a felt relationship and contrast it with ritual.
- 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.
Its 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 distinction should be emphasized, not the equivalence, between the two terms.