A Critical Consideration of Sharur’s View of the Scope of Prophets’ Infallibility

Infallibility of prophets is a controversial issue considered by Muslim intellectuals in different aspects. Muhammad Shahrur, a contemporary “Quranist,” has cited evidence to show that only the Prophet of Islam has existential infallibility under certain conditions, denying infallibility in the case of other prophets. According to this Syrian intellectual, although the Prophet of Islam is not infallible as a man and as a prophet, his position of messengership involves infallibility. In this claim, he cites certain Quranic verses and rational foundations. In this paper, we cite rational and transmitted evidence to critically consider Shahrur’s claims about the infallibility of prophets with a descriptive-analytic method. We conclude that superficialism about Quranic verses, permission of deploying the rational method based on free reflections, resting content with the Qur’an, and the belief that exegesis is not needed are the major grounds for Shahrur’s inaccurate conception of the infallibility of prophets, which led to eclecticism and personal opinions in interpreting Quranic verses.