The Legislative Verses Are Not the Only Criterion of Reading

Formulation of the Claim

The legislative verses are not the only criterion for reading the Qur’an according to Arkoun.

Explanation

Arkoun rejects the reading that gives absolute priority to legal rulings, because this turns the text into a fragmented body of material and weakens attention to its overall structure. In this objection, he links the narrowness of specialization to certain jurisprudential readings that stop at one aspect of the text.

Nor is his objection directed against the existence of the legislative verses themselves, but rather against making them the sole basis of understanding. The Qur’anic text, in his view, is not read in this fragmentary manner, because meaning is bound up with the whole of the text, not merely with one part of it.

Its Place in the Book’s Argument

This atom falls within Arkoun’s critique of reading methods that confine the Qur’an to a direct jurisprudential dimension and neglect what is connected to its structure, language, and historical horizon. It is close to his broader thesis about the need to move beyond selective reading, which anchors argumentation in specific passages and leaves the other levels of the text outside consideration.

Limits of the Claim

This atom does not mean denying the value of the legislative verses or excluding them from reading, but rather rejecting the transformation of them into the sole criterion. Nor does it require here the construction of a detailed alternative interpretation; it is enough to highlight Arkoun’s objection to fragmentation and to narrowing the scope of reading.

Brief Evidence

He fights it as something rational only as something irrational enough, or as something superficially rational. I think this is the meaning of the reproachful phrase that is repeated so often in the Qur’an: Do you not use your reason? In the end, despite everything, we find that the balance in the Qur’an inclines toward the side of thinking power or rational knowledge. Thirdly: regarding the necessity that the Qur’an be read as a whole or as a coherent totality from beginning to end, I find that you are right to draw attention to that. This is consistent with the reading of the believing Islamic community in general. The Qur’anic text should be taken in its entirety and thought about as a whole, but that should not prevent us from analyzing the text and reading it on the basis that it offers answers to the questions and needs of the first community

Related Links

• Readings in the Qur’an