The intended meaning
Shahrur does not make rhetoric an isolated verbal beauty apart from meaning Rather, he makes it the ability to convey meaning to the listener or reader with the fewest possible words, without redundancy or unnecessary synonymy
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: linguistic
- Argument movement: it defines rhetoric in terms of conveyance and brevity, not verbal ornamentation.
- Key terms: rhetoric, meaning, brevity, synonymy, redundancy.
- Degree of centrality: subsidiary.
This atom serves a broader principle in the reading method: language is a tool for meaning, and the expressions of the Revelation are not to be read as redundant or synonymous repetition without function.
Links that help with reading
- Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation
- Language serves meaning
- The contemporary reading method
Grounding
- Supporting text: “with the fewest possible words.”
Where the grounding appears in the book
- Book: Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation.
- Location: within the discussion of language and rhetoric, and the rejection of synonymy and redundancy.
- Type of grounding: near evidence.
- Marker that helps verification: rhetoric, fewest possible words, no synonymy, no redundancy.
- Reading note: the passage is suitable because it links rhetoric to brevity and the conveyance of meaning, not to verbal beauty alone.
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on a clear witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is transmitted textually.
Its function in the book
Its function here is linguistic and methodological; it supports the rejection of synonymy within the Revelation and links rhetoric to the function of understanding.
Related to
Editorial note
The atom is subsidiary because it regulates a linguistic feature, but it is important in building the path of language and signification.