Language Serves Meaning

Intended Meaning

Shahrur holds that language in the Revelation is not an end in itself, but a tool that serves meaning and carries thought. For him, meanings are determined in arrangement and structure, not in isolated words; therefore, knowledge of the lexicon alone is not enough to understand the text.

The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas

• Type of argument: methodological
• Movement of the argument: language is a tool of meaning, and meaning is sought in arrangement, not in individual words.
• Key terms: language, meaning, arrangement, words, understanding.
• Degree of centrality: primary.

It establishes a rule in reading that makes arrangement the basis of understanding and prevents reliance on the dictionary alone, because full signification is formed through the relationship between words.

Links That Help with Reading

• Muhammad Shahrur Contemporary Reading Guide to the Wise Revelation
• The Contemporary Reading Method

Basis

• Supporting text: «١- الألفاظ خدم للمعاني، فالمعاني هي المالكة لسياستها والمتحكّمة فيها. ووظيفة اللغة هي آليّة التفكير ونقل ما يريده متكلم إلى سامع. ٢- حين يخاطب المتكلم سامعاً، فهو لا يقصد إفهامه معاني الكلمات المفردة، لذا فالثقافة المعجمية غير كافية لفهم أيّ نصّ لغوي، فما بالك إن كان النصّ هو التنزيل الحكيم. فالمعاني موجودة في النظم، لا في الألفاظ كلّ على حدة، وحين نقول إنّ الولد أكل تفاحة حمراء، فنحن نعني ضمناً وبالضرورة أنّ هناك تفاحاً بألوان أخرى. وعندما نقرأ قوله تعالى: { وَالْإِثْمَ وَالْبَغْيَ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ } (الأعراف ٣٣)، فنحن نفهم ضمناً وبالضرورة أنّ هناك إثماً وبغياً بحقّ، ولو لم نقل ذلك لفظاً بالنصّ، وهذا ما يسمىّ المسكوت عنه. ٣- اللغة حاملة للفكر، وتتطوّر معه».

Related Verses

• Al-A’raf 33

Place of the Basis in the Book

• Book: Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation.
• Location: in the first section of the book
• Type of basis: direct evidence.
• Verification marker: الألفاظ خدم للمعاني
• Reading note: this passage is highly suitable because it clearly states that words serve meanings and that meanings are primary.

Degree of Documentation

• Level: directly documented
• Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit witness close to the formulation of the claim.
• 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.

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.

Editorial Note

This atom is among Shahrur’s most important rules of reading.