Intended Meaning
Shahrur holds that understanding the Wise Revelation cannot be final or absolute for anyone, because claiming complete mastery of the Book from beginning to end exceeds human limits. For this reason, he considers such a claim close to sharing God in knowledge, and regards readings that claim to seal off understanding as lacking scientific value in his view.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: methodological
- Direction of the argument: it denies the completion of final understanding of the text by any reader
- Key terms: absolute understanding, contemporary reading, interpretation, knowledge.
- Degree of centrality: central.
This atom frames the whole method in terms of epistemic humility; it prevents reading from turning into a final authority. In doing so, it opens the door to multiple readings within the bounds of knowledge, not beyond them.
Links That Help with Reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation
- The Method of Contemporary Reading
Grounding
- Supporting text: «The cognitive system, or the method we adopted in our attempt to understand the Wise Revelation and present a contemporary reading of it, whether on the topic of prophethood or messengership, aims to work toward re-establishing a contemporary religious thought that does not clash with what human knowledge has reached, by using an advanced cognitive ground for understanding the texts of the Wise Revelation, and re-establishing a contemporary Islamic jurisprudence that offers a different vision of the legislative process, which must keep pace with the cognitive development of any society. We must not forget that our contemporary reading of the Wise Revelation is not its final reading, because saying that it is final puts us in the same position as the predecessors, the Salafis, the forefathers, and the ancestralists, since whoever claims to understand God’s Book as a whole, from beginning to end, with absolute understanding, is in effect claiming a partnership with God in knowledge in light of the Exalted’s saying: { And those who disbelieve say, “You are not sent.” Say, “God is sufficient as witness between me and you, and whoever has knowledge of the Book” } (al-Ra’d 43). Therefore, the books of interpretation that interpret the Wise Revelation from beginning to end mean nothing to us scientifically and have no credibility, because they are generally based on biblical interpretation, on the circumstances of revelation, and on the sayings of the predecessors. As for the principles of our contemporary method in understanding the texts of the Wise Revelation, they are principles with a scientific basis and have credibility in application, and they rest on the following».
Related Verses
Place of Grounding in the Book
- Book: Guide to the Contemporary Reading of the Wise Revelation.
- Location: in the first section of the book
- Type of grounding: near witness.
- Verification marker: not the final reading
- Reading note: It works as evidence because it explicitly states that the contemporary reading is not the final one, and that absolute understanding is impossible; this is the core of the atom in question.
Documentation Level
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of level: the atom is based on an explicit witness close to the wording 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 transmitted textually.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is argumentative; it supports a larger conclusion in the chapter or prepares the ground for it.
Editorial Note
It serves the idea that understanding is a historical process with no closure.