Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism

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  • Title: Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism
  • Author: Muhammad Shahrur
  • Number of reading units: 10

General Summary

In this book, Shahrur offers a critical reading of the meaning of terrorism and its sources, and argues that its main roots are not in the Qur’an but in the accumulated jurisprudential and hadith-based tradition and the political instrumentalization of religiosity. He begins by redefining central concepts such as the Book and the Qur’an, the decisive and the ambiguous, as well as wrote and prescribed, then builds on them a wide deconstruction of the concepts of jihad, fighting, martyrdom, loyalty and disavowal, and apostasy. He affirms that the Muhammadan message is a message of mercy, freedom, and universality, and that any understanding that turns religion into an instrument of coercion or tyranny is a historically deviant understanding. He also insists that fighting in the Qur’an is contingent and conditional, and that its purpose is to protect freedom, justice, and equality, not to impose belief or expand power. He likewise revisits religious and social concepts such as the right, the wrong, extravagance, wastefulness, hijab, loyalty, and commanding right, in order to return them to their linguistic and Qur’anic origins. In another extension of his argument, he strongly criticizes many hadith reports and traditional unseen matters when they conflict with reason and reality and with the purposes of the text. He grounds the idea that the Qur’anic text is fixed, but human understanding is historically mobile, and that ijtihad is the natural sphere for organizing the changing affairs of life. He also makes freedom, dignity, and choice the ethical and legislative basis for confronting terrorism and drying up its sources. The book clearly shows his effort to separate religion from its authoritarian use, while keeping Qur’anic authority above historical jurisprudence.

Central Theses

  • Terrorism, at its core, is the product of a rigid historical reading of religion, not of the Qur’anic text itself.
  • Traditional jurisprudence and later codified hadith helped shift the center of religion from revelation to narration and authority.
  • Jihad is broader than fighting, and fighting is neither an end in itself nor an absolute duty, but a contingent obligation.
  • Testimony in the Qur’an means presence, reporting, and eyewitnessing, not killing in battle alone.
  • Loyalty and disavowal are concepts whose historical use emptied them in the tradition of their Qur’anic dimension in favor of exclusion and excommunication.
  • Apostasy, in its historical and political origin, became mixed with religion, and no worldly punishment for the apostate is established in the Wise Revelation.
  • The highest values in Islam are freedom, justice, and equality, and these are the purpose of any legitimate fighting if it occurs.
  • The Qur’anic text is fixed, whereas understanding and detailed legislation vary according to time and knowledge.
  • Many rulings and concepts used today are historical jurisprudential readings, not necessary Qur’anic meanings.
  • Combating terrorism requires revising education and political jurisprudence and separating religion from the use of power.

Core Concepts

  • The Book: the totality of the verses of the entire muṣḥaf, or the composite whole of the Qur’anic subject matter.
  • The Qur’an: the ambiguous part of the Book, including cosmological matters and narratives.
  • The decisive: the fixed verses that represent the Mother of the Book and contain the limits, commands, and prohibitions.
  • The ambiguous: what changes in understanding across the ages, such as cosmological matters and stories.
  • Wrote: indicates collection, joining, obligation, or recording depending on context.
  • Prescribed: indicates delimitation, clarification, and removal of hardship, or setting the limit and measure.
  • Jihad: exertion of effort; it may be moral or defensive, and is not equal to fighting.
  • Fighting: forced armed confrontation in a specific context.
  • Testimony: presence, awareness, and documentation of the event or the truth.
  • Witness: the present, hearing, seeing one, not the slain person alone.
  • Terrorism: in Qur’anic usage it is linked to deterrence and awe, not to killing innocents.
  • Disbelief: a public hostile stance or covering over the truth, not an absolute judgment on individuals.
  • Associating partners: attributing to other than God the qualities of permanence or embodiment, or taking a partner with Him in worship.
  • Loyalty: an elective social or doctrinal relation depending on the field.
  • Disavowal: renouncing a stance or act after its basis becomes clear, not hatred of people in the absolute sense.
  • Apostasy: it may be political or doctrinal, and the political context is most prominent in Shahrur’s critique.
  • Freedom: the supreme value and the primary objective.
  • The right: what sound reason and society deem good.
  • The wrong: what sound minds and society deem ugly or blameworthy.
  • Extravagance: exceeding the line separating the lawful from the unlawful.
  • Wastefulness: exceeding the proper amount within the lawful.
  • Hijab: a spatial barrier, not equivalent to clothing.
  • Openings: visible and hidden places or layers in the body in the context of adornment.
  • The Throne: God’s commands, prohibitions, and acts of forbidding.
  • The Chair: the knowledge of the Lord of the worlds.
  • Utterance/saying/enunciation: distinct levels in signification and clarification.
  • Islam: surrender to God and righteous action.
  • Faith: assent associated with the message of Muhammad and its specific rites.

Shahrur’s Method in This Book

  • He relies on linguistic analysis of Arabic roots before constructing meaning.
  • He interprets Qur’anic terms through Qur’anic usage, not through traditional terminology.
  • He always distinguishes between the fixed legislative text and historical or narrative report.
  • He reads the verses in their historical and thematic context and does not separate them from their precedents and sequels.
  • He compares the Qur’an with jurisprudential and hadith heritage to expose distortion or political use.
  • He links understanding to broad human purposes: freedom, dignity, peace, and rejection of coercion.
  • He uses historical and social comparison to show the changing of concepts across the ages.
  • He builds many of his conclusions on the distinction between message and prophethood, and between ijtihad and conveyance.

Issues He Focuses On Most

  • Jihad, fighting, raiding, and their Qur’anic and traditional meanings.
  • Testimony and martyrdom and their relation to being killed in battle.
  • Loyalty and disavowal and their sectarian and political transformations.
  • Apostasy and its relation to authority and political conflict.
  • Enjoining right and forbidding wrong, and mechanisms for applying them without coercion.
  • The right and the wrong, the lawful and the prohibited, extravagance and wastefulness.
  • Hijab, clothing, openings, and woman in the Qur’anic context.
  • Textual fixity and the mobility of understanding, and abrogation between messages, not within the Wise Revelation.
  • Critique of hadith and traditional unseen matters when they clash with reason and reality.
  • The concept of freedom as the highest purpose in confronting tyranny and terrorism.

Keywords for Quick Return

  • Terrorism
  • Jihad
  • Fighting
  • Testimony
  • Martyrdom
  • Loyalty and disavowal
  • Apostasy
  • Sovereignty
  • Enjoining right
  • Forbidding wrong
  • The right and the wrong
  • Extravagance and wastefulness
  • Hijab
  • The decisive and the ambiguous
  • Wrote and prescribed
  • Freedom
  • Justice
  • Equality
  • the Wise Revelation
  • Traditional jurisprudence
  • Linguistic reading
  • Historical context

Atlas Layer

The Book’s Thesis in the Atlas

This book affirms that terrorism is not part of the essence of Islam, but rather the product of rigid traditional readings and the political use of religion. It therefore links the renewal of Qur’anic understanding to stripping violence of legitimacy, and to restoring the value of freedom, mercy, and mutual recognition.

Reading Axes

  • Terrorism is the product of a rigid historical reading.
  • Jihad, fighting, and martyrdom are distinct concepts.
  • Freedom is the root of purposes and safeguarding it is a social responsibility.
  • Religion rejects coercion and is governed by a worldly function of the state.
  • Mutual recognition and plural belonging produce a community without contradiction.

The Structure on Which the Book Is Based

  • It refers violence back to reading rather than to the text.
  • It distinguishes between jihad, fighting, and terrorism.
  • It links purposes to freedom and dignity.
  • It places the state in the worldly, regulatory sphere.

Major Composites

  • The Qur’anic message establishes freedom and rejects coercion and coercive religious authority.
  • Qur’anic fighting is defensive and limited, and historical context prevents the legitimization of terrorism.
  • The structure of revelation and disciplined historical interpretation prevent religion from being turned into violence.
  • Human sociality in the Qur’an is based on mutual recognition and action, not on exclusion and enmity.
  • Linguistic and purposive tools of understanding expand the ethical meaning of the text.

Entry Point to the Book

The book presents a defense of Islam from within the text, not merely a political rebuttal to violence. Here Shahrur connects the soundness of reading with the soundness of the public sphere, and makes freedom and justice the criterion for understanding fighting and jihad.

Layer Map

This page is not a copy of the book, nor an alternative summary of it, but rather a reading map of its concepts, arguments, and pathways. It is recommended to refer to the original text to understand the full context.

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas