Summary of the Thesis
Shahrur divides the field into the decisive and the ambiguous, and assigns ijtihad to the decisives, and interpretation to the ambigus. In this way, methodological understanding within the text is distributed on a clear basis.
Foundational Atoms
- The decisive does not admit ijtihad
- The decisive and the ambiguous each have their own elaboration
- The definitive and the detailed in Hud differ from the decisive and the ambiguous in Al ‘Imran
- Interpretation is specific to the ambiguous
- Interpretation pertains specifically to the ambiguities
- Ijtihad pertains to the decisives
Position of Support within the Book
This distinction appears at the beginning of the book when explaining the decisive and the ambiguous and the limits of interpretation, then recurs in the discussion of the elaboration of the two books and the division of the verses of the revelation. Here, the book also adds a contextual distinction between the definitive and the detailed in Hud and the decisive and the ambiguous in Al ‘Imran.
Limits of the Reading
The aim here is to summarize the distribution of functions within the text, not to exhaust all the implications of this division in the rest of the book.