What Is Meant Here
The established point is the statement of the rule in its own wording: «the nearer excludes the more distant.» This witness alone is not sufficient to say that nearness means kinship, or that exclusion concerns a specific inheritance, right, or entitlement.
What Is Attributed to Shahrur
Shahrur presents the phrase as an emphasized rule: «with emphasis on the rule: the nearer excludes the more distant.»
The Atlas Explanation
The page records the rule as it appears, without extending it to a specific application. “The nearer” and “the more distant” are the two terms of an ordering in the statement, and “excludes” is the effect it stipulates; however, the text provided does not define these terms or explain the conditions of exclusion.
Conclusion
At a minimum, the phrase can be read as a rule of priority between a nearer party and a more distant one. Turning it into a detailed rule concerning kinship or the distribution of rights, however, is not an inference documented by this witness alone.
Open Question and Limits of the Evidence
What is the intended criterion of nearness? Who is subject to exclusion? In which part of the book does the phrase occur, and what is its argumentative context? These questions require extracting the passage surrounding the witness from the raw text or obtaining a documented contextual witness.
Reading Links
- Muhammad Shahrur, Toward New Principles for Islamic Jurisprudence
- The Book, the Qur’an, and the Mother of the Book
- The Verse of Light sets a minimum for dress and leaves the rest to custom
Toward New Principles for Islamic Jurisprudence · The Verse of Light sets a minimum for dress and leaves the rest to custom