The Meaning of the Concept in This Book
Principles of Islamic jurisprudence is presented as a foundational field for legal rulings within the Islamic conception, closely tied to the foundations of religion. Its presence here comes through Mohammed Arkoun’s use of it as an example of how epistemic structures became more closed systems when tradition and dogma came to dominate them.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
In this book, principles of Islamic jurisprudence does not appear as an isolated discipline, but rather within a broader argument concerned with the way religious knowledge takes shape and with its limits. From this position it meets the claim that Principles of Islamic jurisprudence and the foundations of religion are complementary, and the idea that the closure of ijtihad is a consequence of imitation.
How It Works Within the Atlas
This concept functions within the atlas as a point of connection between the construction of legal rulings and the critique of closed epistemic structures. It shows how the field of ijtihad, when hemmed in by imitation, becomes a framework that consolidates what already exists rather than opening a horizon for understanding. For that reason, in the atlas’s broader reading, it is linked to wider questions about text and history, about the critique of Islamic reason, and about rethinking the very tools of understanding.