What is meant
Shahrur holds that the Wise Revelation does not prescribe a specific worldly punishment for the apostate, nor does it establish a legal limit in this life. Rather, it links apostasy to the nullification and invalidation of deeds, so that the punishment mentioned for it is otherworldly, not worldly.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: legislative
- Movement of the argument: apostasy is not established as having a worldly limit in this understanding.
- Key terms: the apostate, worldly punishment, otherworldly punishment, nullification of deeds, apostasy.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
It denies a specific worldly punishment for apostasy and shifts the center of gravity to the fate in the hereafter, which changes the jurisprudential approach to this issue.
Reading aids
Basis
- Supporting text: “It denies the existence of a worldly legal limit for the apostate in the Wise Revelation, and makes the otherworldly punishment connected to the nullification and invalidation of deeds.”
Place of the basis in the book
- Book: Draining the Sources of Terrorism.
- Location: near the beginning of the book, in his discussion of the effects of applying texts outside their historical context.
- Type of basis: close evidence.
- Marker that helps with verification: killing innocents and terrorizing those at peace
- Reading note: the passage is suitable as support because it opposes turning rulings into a tool of killing and terror, and it is close to denying a worldly punishment for the apostate.
Degree of documentation
- Level: structurally documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on more than one witness or on a clear composition of closely related expressions.
- Reason for classification: the witnesses explicitly deny a worldly punishment for the apostate.
- Limits of reading: the wording above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted textually.
Editorial note
The atom redefines the effect of apostasy from earthly punishment to reckoning in the hereafter.