What is meant
The author sees the concept of “those under your right hand” as not meaning slavery, but rather referring to a contractual relation that arose in a historical context in which slavery had come to an end. He links this understanding to the regulation of certain social and sexual relations in accordance with custom and civil law.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: interpretive
- Movement of the argument: redefines possession of those under your right hand as a contractual relation linked to a historical transformation.
- Key terms: possession of those under your right hand, contract, slavery.
- Degree of centrality: pivotal.
This shifts the concept from a closed historical form to a broader legal and social understanding, while linking it to the end of slavery. Thus, the reading is based on historical transformation rather than literal inheritance.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence
- Women, the Family, and Dress
- The Concepts of Honor and Honor-Related Reputation Are Not Derived from the Referent of Revelation
Basis
- Supporting text: “He links the historical end of slavery to a reinterpretation of the concept of those under one’s right hand as a contractual relation rather than slavery, and makes it relevant to the regulation of certain social and sexual relations in light of custom and civil law.”
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 the reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary and is not treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted exactly.
Its function in the book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction that Shahrur relies on in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial note
The meaning here is interpretive and needs careful framing when presented to the reader.