What Is Meant Here
What is meant by the phrase in this context is not abortion. According to Shahrur, it refers to killing a child who has already been born out of fear of poverty. Therefore, the same wording should not be treated as a direct ruling on abortion.
What Is Attributed to Shahrur
The text attributed to Shahrur states: «Killing children for fear of poverty is not abortion; the text speaks of killing the newborn after birth.» The basis for the distinction is thus the child’s status: born after birth in the first phrase, and a fetus in abortion.
Atlas Explanation
This is both a temporal and a substantive distinction: it does not conflate an act directed, according to the cited text, at an existing newborn with terminating a pregnancy before birth. It prevents the meaning of “killing children” from being extended to abortion without additional textual evidence.
Conclusion
The specific conclusion is that this passage does not present “killing children for fear of poverty” as synonymous with abortion; rather, it distinguishes between them.
Open Question and Limits of the Evidence
This citation alone does not establish a comprehensive position on abortion or a detailed account of Shahrur’s ruling on it. Moreover, the citation’s location in the book is not identified by page number, and the raw-context field is unavailable in the available evidence.
For reading in the context of the book: Muhammad Shahrur’s Umm al-Kitab and Its Detailing, Legislation, Limits, and Prohibition, Qur’anic narratives fall within the cognitive dimension, not legislation.
Qur’anic narratives fall within the cognitive dimension, not legislation