Formulation of the Claim
Traditional interpretation of the Qur’an rests on four interrelated presuppositions: the sanctity of the Qur’an, its being regarded as non-historical divine speech, its confinement within a normative linguistic structure, and the construction of a theory of inimitability upon it.
Explanation
The author presents these presuppositions as the framework that directs traditional reading and limits the possibility of interrogating it historically and critically. The problem is not the existence of a reading of the Qur’an, but rather the transformation of these assumptions into closed self-evidences.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This formulation appears at the heart of Arkoun’s critique of the way interpretive authority was formed, as he links the sanctity of the text as traditionally understood with the paralysis of historical inquiry into the formation of meaning.
What the Atom Does Not Say
It does not say that every traditional interpretation states these presuppositions in exactly the same way, nor does it refer to any one school in particular so much as it describes the general structure the author criticizes.