What is meant
The text states that the world can only be understood if it is viewed as a continuous movement between being, process, and becoming; none of these may be separated from the others. Understanding existence here requires grasping this interdependence between what is, what is unfolding, and what it is becoming.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: methodological
- Movement of the argument: it links understanding the world to the inseparability of being, process, and becoming.
- Central terms: world, being, becoming.
- Degree of centrality: pivotal.
It builds a comprehensive conception of existence, one that does not settle for stasis alone or motion alone, but brings them together in a single structure that explains transformation and fulfillment.
Reading aids
- Muhammad Shahrur, Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence
- History, evolution, and laws
- being
- becoming
- Existence can only be understood through the inseparability of being, process, and becoming
Basis
- Supporting text: «Existence can only be understood through the inseparability of being, process, and becoming, and none of them may be isolated from the others».
Location of the basis in the book
- Book: Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence.
- Location: in the early part of the book, within the construction of the basic concepts of existence.
- Type of basis: close evidence.
- Marker that helps verification: the inseparability and interconnection among the three axes
- Reading note: the passage explains being, process, and becoming as mutually inseparable, which is a clear basis for 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 quoted textually.
Its function in the book
Its function here is declarative; it establishes a conclusion on which what follows in the argument depends.
Related to
Editorial note
The atom makes holistic understanding conditional on inseparability.