Formulation of the claim
Arkoun calls for a scientific critical reading of the Qur’an and its legacy.
Explanation
This claim lies at the heart of Arkoun’s project, in which the Qur’an is not understood as a text isolated from the history of its reception, but rather within a network of traditions and interpretations that have accumulated around it. What is meant by a scientific critical reading is opening the text to the tools of historical and epistemic understanding, instead of contenting oneself with inherited readings.
This orientation shows that Arkoun links the study of the Qur’an to the question of knowledge itself: how meanings were formed, how certain readings came to be the sole standard, and how this can be reconsidered without denying the centrality of the text. Thus, reading for him is not merely explanation, but a critical examination of the structure that governed the understanding of the Qur’an across the ages.
Its place in the book’s argument
This atom comes at the center of the argument through which Arkoun makes his project an intellectual reform project in the field of religious knowledge. It is directly connected to his effort to move beyond closed reading and to re-situate the Qur’an and its traditions within a research horizon that permits criticism and historical understanding, which is consistent with the book’s other theses on dismantling assumptions and reconsidering ways of dealing with foundational texts.
Limits of the claim
This atom should not be given more weight than it states: it does not summarize Arkoun’s entire project, nor does it provide here a detailed account of the reading method or its tools. Nor does it mean a rejection of the Qur’an or a denial of its value; rather, it simply defines an orientation in how to engage with it and with the traditions that have accumulated around it.