Differences Among Doctrines in the Reports

Formulation of the Claim

Sunnis, Shiites, and Kharijites differ in the narrative contents and reports they circulate, not in the Qur’an itself.

Explanation

Arkoun explains this difference as a difference in the stories and reports that shape meaning and direct reception. As for the Qur’an itself, it remains one in his view, while the ways of transmitting it and the modes of recounting it vary among these paths.

Its Place in the Book’s Argument

This idea serves Arkoun’s distinction between the referential text and the history that has accumulated around it. It indicates that sectarian division does not result from multiple Qur’ans, but from differing narratives that shape understanding and interpretation and define the point of divergence between reports and contents.

What the Claim Does Not Say

It does not reduce all sectarian disagreements to a single element, nor does it deny the broader jurisprudential and theological differences; rather, it focuses here on the role of narration in shaping meaning.

Brief Evidence

Since these stories and reports are a collective product of the Muslim community, every sign finds itself burdened with social contents and symbolic values whose accumulation over history will crystallize the enduring identity of each community or sect. In this way, we can explain the reason for the intractable, irreversible symbolic semiotic conflicts between Sunnis, Shiites, and Kharijites. Although they use the same relationship that the mind engages with the sign, they project onto the space of Qur’anic discourse different narrative or story-like contents, which they call Prophetic hadiths. If the Qur’an is one among all, then the books of hadith are different. There is Sunni hadith, Shiite hadith, and hadith

Nearby Links

• Four Presuppositions Governing Traditional Interpretation
• A Critical Historical Reconstruction of Tradition
• The Use of Islam Needs a More Precise Distinction