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28chapter oneexample, the Arabic words al-jazm and al-jurm, al-jazz and al-Èazz,al-batt and al-qaãã, al-batr and al-shaãr, all connote the same root meaning,which is ‘to cut off’ ( al-qaã#—yet another term); however, minoradditional layers of meaning make each word unique and differentfrom the others in this group. 10 Ignoring such subtle differences whilewriting or reading newspapers is bad enough, but we should notignore them while reading Allah’s Book!Al-isl§m and al-muslimånNow that we have established that al-isl§m and al-Êm§n are two differentconcepts and that the traditional understanding of al-isl§m’sfive pillars is inaccurate, we can now redefine al-isl§m and its pillarsaccording to the Book, applying the method of tartÊl, 11 that is, a thematicarrangement of the verses that contain the terms inquestion.1. The term al-isl§m refers to an ‘assent to God’:We learn that al-isl§m means belief in the existence of God, inHis unity and in life after death; we learn that this belief containsan absolut4e, axiomatic truth, insofar as these articles offaith can neither be proved nor disproved by empirical evidenceor scientific tests; and we learn that such beliefs are equallyshared by all people in this world and are, as they are based on10E.g., jazama: ‘to cut off’ and ‘to give an apodictic judgement’; jarama: ‘to cut off’and ‘to commit an offence, crime’; jazza: ‘to cut off’ and ‘to clip, shear’; Èazza: ‘to cut’and ‘to incise, indent’; batta: ‘to cut off’ and ‘to decide, settle’; qaããa: ‘to cut’ and ‘totrim, shorten’; batara: ‘to cut off’ and ‘to amputate, mutilate’; shaãara: ‘to cut off’ and‘to halve, bisect’; qaãa#: ‘to cut off’ and ‘to separate, disjoin, interrupt’. The additionalmeanings of these words have been highlighted by the underlined and because,according to MS, these additional or indirect meanings make them unique and differentto those terms with which they share the common or direct meaning of ‘to cut(off )’.11This term is conventionally understood as a qur"anic self-reference ( Al-Muz -zammil 73:4 says: “Or a little more; recite the Qur"an slowly and distinctly [tartÊl an ]”,AH), urging readers of the Qur"an to perform a ‘measured recitation’. In contrast,MS interprets wa-rattil al-qur"§n tartÊlan as Allah’s request to group together the manydifferent subject themes (maw·å#§t) that are scattered throughout the entire Book andto create a logical order or meaningful sequence (tartÊl) which allows a proper interpretationof a specific theme or topic. Ambros translates the verbal root r-t-l as “toarrange s.th. in good order” (Ambros, Dictionary, 108) which exactly renders MS’sliteral understanding of the term tartÊl.