Evidence location: Muhammad Shahrur, Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism; Page 41؛ OCR line 861. Arabic source witness: «آيات القتال فيها ليست من الرسالة وقد حُذفت البسملة منها وينبغي فهمها ضمن ظروف عصرها»
What Is Meant Here?
What is meant in the formulation of this atom is the rejection of reading the verses on fighting as a permanent, general authorization of violence. But the available evidence does not establish this broader meaning in its entirety, since no raw text is available that mentions “historical context” or “circumstances of revelation.”
What Is Attributed to Shahrur and the Available Evidence
No direct, definitive statement is attributed to Shahrur here, because the available witness is not a raw text from the book but rather a description of the passage. It reads: “The passage focuses on stripping the verses on fighting of their general legislative character.” This supports, to a limited extent, a description of the passage’s orientation, but not the details of the historical interpretation attributed in the atom’s title.
Atlas Explanation
“Stripping [them] of their general legislative character” can be understood as rejecting a reading that makes the verses on fighting a comprehensive rule in themselves. But this understanding must not be turned into a documented claim that Shahrur specifically referred the verses back to the time of revelation or to particular historical circumstances, unless a direct text from the book is added.
Synthetic Conclusion
This atom intersects with the page Verses on Fighting and the Muhammadan Narratives Do Not Legislate Absolute Violence and with the topic Jihad, Fighting, and the Critique of Violence. However, this connection remains a weakly documented editorial inference in the absence of a direct witness for this atom.
Open Question
What text explicitly mentions the verses on fighting or their temporal circumstances? Does Shahrur connect the denial of their general legislative scope to a historical context, or does he ground his argument in another distinction? It is necessary to return to the raw text in Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism before retaining the title in its current form.