The Intended Meaning
The author sees marriage not as merely a financial marriage contract, but as a binding covenant upon which the shared life between man and woman is founded. This covenant is the basis that organizes shared human life within the family.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: definitional
- Argument movement: it defines marriage as a binding covenant that goes beyond a mere financial contract.
- Key terms: marriage, binding covenant, shared life, family.
- Degree of centrality: central.
This atom rebuilds the concept of marriage on an ethical and human basis, making it a framework for a shared relationship rather than merely a limited legal formula.
Reading Aids
- Muhammad Shahrur: Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence
- Women, Family, and Dress
- The Concepts of Honor and Chastity Are Not from the Reference Framework of the Revelation
Basis
- Supporting text: «The passage moves on to marriage, redefining it as a binding covenant that goes beyond the financial marriage contract, and affirming that the covenant is the basis of shared human life».
Place of the Basis in the Book
- Book: Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence.
- Location: in the middle section of the book, in the discussion of marriage before and after the mission.
- Type of basis: close witness.
- Marker for verification: binding covenant
- Reading note: this location serves as evidence because it explicitly states that marriage, according to the Revelation, is a binding covenant between the spouses, not merely a financial contract.
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 wording above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted word for word.
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.
Related to
Editorial Note
Here there is a shift from juristic language to the language of the social covenant.