Formulation of the Claim
The contemporary researcher needs both the tools of classical ijtihad and the methods of the modern sciences.
Explanation
Arkoun presents the contemporary researcher as someone who requires a dual formation that does not suffice with inherited tradition alone and does not dissolve into modernity alone. The point is not to replace the tools of ijtihad, but to keep them alive within a broader horizon that makes it possible to engage new questions.
This formulation suggests that religious knowledge is not produced within a single closed boundary, because examining text and tradition also requires modern analytical tools. In this sense, combining tools becomes a condition for a deeper understanding than mere repetition or transmission.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This atom falls within the argumentative context that links criticism of methodological stagnation to the need to renew the tools of inquiry in Islam. In the book, it parallels a position that seeks to move the researcher beyond merely relying on the legacy of ijtihad as it stands, without severing ties to it, by opening it to modern methods that expand the field of understanding and critique.
Limits of the Claim
The atom does not mean that anyone who combines two kinds of tools automatically adopts Arkoun’s position or produces a fully critical reading. Nor does it make modern tools a substitute for tradition, or tradition an end sufficient unto itself.