Formulation of the Claim
The author sees inherited interpretation as tending to freeze meaning instead of leaving it open to its inner movement.
Explanation
This tendency departs from the dynamism of the Qur’an itself, because the interpretive inheritance turns the text into rigid oppositions instead of keeping its inner tension alive. In this way, meaning is no longer an open field for reading; it becomes fixed within ready-made formulas that are repeated as the final word.
From Arkoun’s perspective, this observation is connected to the problem of reading, which places layers of fixation between the reader and the text, making the text appear more closed than it is. What is required, then, is not merely the transmission of interpretation, but attention to what this transmission produces in terms of semantic rigidity.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This atom belongs to the critique of reading mechanisms that obscure the dynamism of the Qur’anic text and turn interpretation into a closed framework that precedes the text instead of listening to it. It reinforces the call to recover the movement of meaning in the Qur’an rather than reducing it to inherited molds.
Limits of the Claim
The atom does not deny the value of inherited interpretation or declare it invalid; rather, it shows its effect when it is treated as a final form that closes off the possibilities of meaning.