Intended Meaning
The author holds that prohibition is established only by divine text; human beings have no authority to add prohibitions of their own. Accordingly, ijtihad operates within the boundaries set by the text, not by expanding the sphere of prohibition without evidence.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: legislative
- Movement of the argument: confines the authority of prohibition to the divine text and prevents the expansion of prohibition through human ijtihad.
- Key terms: prohibition, text, ijtihad, limits.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
This atom establishes a decisive legislative principle in Shahrur’s thought: no prohibition without text. In this way, it regulates the scope of ijtihad and prevents custom or fatwa from becoming an independent source of prohibition.
Links That Help Reading
Basis
- Supporting text: «The Muhammadan message is boundary-based, and its field is human life; ijtihad within it proceeds within divine limits. Prohibition is God’s right alone, and it may not be extended to what the text has not prohibited. The concession in prohibitions is almost confined to food in cases of necessity, not to the rest of the prohibitions».
Place of the Basis in the Book
- Book: Towards New Principles for Islamic Jurisprudence.
- Location: in the first section of the book, within the discussion of the limits of ijtihad and the domain of prohibition.
- Type of basis: close witness.
- Verification marker: ijtihad may only occur within the text
- Reading note: This passage is suitable as evidence because it confirms that prohibition belongs to God alone and that ijtihad is confined to the limits only, which matches the atom.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit 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 word for word.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is argumentative; it supports a larger conclusion in the chapter or prepares for it.
Related to
Editorial Note
The analytical formulation extracts the rule of legislation, whereas the witness confines prohibition to God alone.