What is meant
Fighting in the Qur’an is not an end in itself, nor is it sought for its own sake in an absolute sense Rather, it is a necessary duty to which one resorts when needed and under conditions, not as a permanent goal
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: legislative
- Argument movement: makes fighting a constrained necessity, not an absolute end.
- Key terms: fighting, duty, necessary, end.
- Degree of centrality: central.
It restricts fighting to the condition of need, thus removing it from the rank of a permanent objective. This atom is important in building a reading that sees war as an exceptional regulatory measure, not as an enduring devotional principle.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism
- Jihad, Fighting, and the Critique of Violence
- fighting
- Legitimate fighting is defensive and constrained by the aim of freedom
Basis
- Supporting text: «Fighting in the Qur’an is not an end in itself nor an absolute obligation».
Location of the basis in the book
- Book: Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism.
- Location: near the beginning of the book
- Type of basis: close evidence.
- Marker that helps verification: fighting is contingent on capability
- Reading note: This passage is suitable as evidence because it states that fighting is contingent on capability and is understood as a duty, not an independent end.
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of the reading: the wording above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is transmitted word for word.
Its function in the book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial note
The witness supports the negation of absoluteness and the affirmation of necessity.