Formulation of the Claim
The Qur’an establishes a new meaning and a new community through a symbolic and imaginal force that reorganizes signification and belonging.
Why Do These Elements Come Together?
These elements come together because the effect of the Qur’an, in this book, is not understood as a merely direct textual effect, but as a foundational act that reorders meaning from within. The Qur’an first appears as a foundational event through its distinctive symbolic force, then as a power that reshapes society and signification through imagination and metaphor, and then this effect takes form in the construction of the community’s identity through rituals and the overturning of tribal solidarity.
Myth is connected to this trajectory because it is not falsehood, but a positive symbolic language that reveals primordial and universal truths and establishes meaning. The heart is also connected to this trajectory because it is a center of knowledge open to the marvelous, not confined to logical reason. In this way, symbolism, imagination, myth, and the heart come together to explain how the Qur’an produces a meaning that goes beyond literal reading, while at the same time shaping a new relation between human beings, imagination, knowledge, and community.
The Place of This Collection in the Book
This page comes at the heart of reading the Qur’an as a foundational event whose effect is not limited to the text itself, but extends to the construction of meaning and the formation of community. It brings together the levels explained in the book: the level of the symbolic event, the level of imagination and metaphor, the level of ritual and identity, and then the level of knowledge open to the marvelous. It therefore serves as a link between the analysis of signification and the analysis of religious social life.
Elements of the Collection
- the Qur’an
- the Qur’an is a foundational event with its own symbolic force
- the Qur’an reshapes society and signification through imagination and metaphor
- the Qur’an builds the community’s identity through rituals and the overturning of tribal solidarity
- myth
- the heart in the Qur’an is a center of knowledge open to the marvelous
Brief Evidence Passage
The effect of the Qur’an here is not limited to producing meaning; it goes beyond that to reshaping belonging itself. The symbolic and imaginal force of the text opens a new horizon of meaning and establishes a community that transcends earlier inheritances. For this reason, the levels of event, ritual, metaphor, and identity come together in a single structure within which the human being’s relation to the sacred is determined. In this perspective, the Qur’an is understood as a founding force that builds the symbolic world to the same extent that it builds the believing community.
Conclusion
This page gathers elements that explain how the Qur’an works as a symbolic and imaginal force that establishes a new meaning and builds a new community, and that opens knowledge onto the horizon of the marvelous.