Formulation of the Claim
The classical exegetes see jinn and angels as invisible beings understood as having tangible material qualities.
Explanation
This claim refers to a mode of understanding that brings the unseen closer to sensory imagination, so that jinn and angels are not read as symbolic or abstract meanings, but rather as entities situated within a material horizon for conceiving the world. Within this framework, traditional exegesis is presented as part of a cognitive structure that gives the unseen a form that can be imagined and represented.
Within Arkoun’s thought, this formulation reveals how traditional interpretation operates when it connects the invisible with sensory descriptions, not as an incidental error, but as a feature of the inherited reading of religious texts. In this way, the example becomes indicative of the limits of the exegetical imaginary when it remains captive to representations that are closer to the senses than to conceptual questioning.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This atom comes within Arkoun’s discussion of older modes of understanding texts and unseen beings, where he shows how the traditional exegetical heritage shaped a religious world that places text and sensory representation side by side. It is connected to the neighboring theses that criticize conventional reading patterns and highlight the need to dismantle the assumptions that governed the representation of the sacred and the unseen in Islamic culture.
Limits of the Claim
This atom should not be read as carrying more than its indication of the old exegetical mode itself, not as Arkoun’s statement of a definitive doctrine concerning jinn and angels. Nor does it explain all theological or philosophical positions on the unseen; rather, it is limited to showing how it is represented in a particular context of traditional interpretation.