What is meant
The text states that killing children for fear of poverty or destitution is forbidden, because it conflicts with human nature and with the objectives of the Revelation. It also clarifies that what is meant here is killing a child after birth, not abortion.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: legislative
- Argument movement: killing children out of fear of poverty is forbidden because it conflicts with nature and purpose.
- Key terms: killing children, fear of poverty, destitution, human nature, prohibition.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
This atom sets a clear moral limit on the act and links it to the preservation of human nature and the objectives of the Revelation. It belongs to direct discourse on prohibition, not to general description.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: The Mother of the Book and Its Elaboration
- Legislation, Limits, and Prohibition
- Prohibition
Grounding
- Supporting text: “Disobedience to parents and killing children for fear of poverty are both forbidden because they conflict with human nature and with the objectives of the Revelation.”
Location of the grounding in the book
- Book: The Mother of the Book and Its Elaboration.
- Location: in the middle section of the book
- Type of grounding: close evidence.
- Marker that helps verification: killing children for fear of destitution
- Reading note: the passage explicitly mentions the prohibition of killing children for fear of poverty, which matches the atom without strain.
Degree of documentation
- Level: structurally documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on more than one witness or on a clear combination of closely related expressions.
- Reason for classification: the evidence explicitly states the prohibition of killing children for fear of poverty.
- Limits of the reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted textually.
Its function in the book
Its function here is declarative; it establishes a conclusion on which what follows in the argument depends.
Editorial note
It settles the ruling in one form of killing out of fear of poverty.