What is meant
The author understands the term “qat‘” here as a term with broad semantic scope, not restricted to bodily severing alone. Therefore, from His saying “فاقطعوا أيديهما” it does not necessarily follow that the intended meaning is to cut off the hand with knives or cleavers directly.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: interpretive
- Direction of the argument: makes qat‘ a broad term that is not restricted to severing.
- Central terms: qat‘, severing, theft.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
The term opens onto more than one meaning and prevents its reduction to direct bodily cutting, which softens the force of the inherited punitive reading.
Links that help reading
- Muhammad Shahrur, Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence
- Legislation, Limits, and Prohibition
- Avoidance Does Not Equal Prohibition
Grounding
- Supporting text: “He reads the verse on theft in a non-traditional way, seeing that ‘فاقطعوا أيديهما’ does not necessarily require…”
Place of grounding in the book
- Book: Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence.
- Location: in the first section of the book
- Type of grounding: close evidence.
- Verification marker: why cutting is not permissible
- Reading note: the passage raises the multiplicity of meanings of qat‘ and discusses the rigidity of clinging to a single meaning; it is therefore a valid support for the atom.
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of the reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is transmitted verbatim.
Its function in the book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur depends in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial note
The atom broadens the field of meaning and prevents restriction.