Formulation of the Claim
The Qur’anic phenomenon produces central binaries that organize Islamic consciousness and shape its way of perceiving the world.
Explanation
For Arkoun, the Qur’anic phenomenon is not understood merely as a religious text, but as a founding event that generated major divisions in consciousness and representation. Hence binaries such as the sacred and the mundane, and before revelation and after it, emerge as organizing forms that make religious experience susceptible to ordering and understanding.
These binaries are not mentioned by him as incidental elements, but as one of the effects of Qur’anic formation in the Islamic imaginary. They reveal how Qur’anic discourse became a point of reference for redistributing meanings, defining positions, and producing dividing lines within historical and religious experience.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This atom falls within Arkoun’s attempt to uncover the deep structures produced by the Qur’anic phenomenon in Islamic culture. It is linked to what he observes in the book regarding the Qur’an’s effect in shaping consciousness, not only as devotional content, but as a major organizing moment that rearranged the relationship between human being, world, and meaning.
Limits of the Claim
This atom should not be taken as a definitive judgment on all manifestations of Islamic thought, nor should the Qur’anic phenomenon be reduced to its binaries alone. What is intended here is the highlighting of a specific organizing function, not the exhaustion of all dimensions of the Qur’anic experience or Islamic history.