Formulation of the claim
The Hajj is read as a passage from the earthly order to the transcendent order.
Explanation
At Arkoun, the Hajj is presented as a symbolic path that is not limited to a ritual performance, but rather exceeds physical movement toward a broader meaning. The rite is thus understood as a semantic crossing from the domain of everyday sensibility to a domain connected with ultimate meaning.
This understanding allows the Hajj to be situated within Arkoun’s reading of religious rites as bearers of meaning, not merely as repetitive acts. The rite therefore appears as a transformation of both position and direction, not simply as spatial movement.
Its place in the book’s argument
This atom belongs to an approach that reads Qur’anic rites as semantic structures revealing dimensions of transformation and meaning in religious experience. It supports the book’s general direction of deconstructing the symbolic functions of acts of worship and highlighting the passage they carry from one level to another within the religious structure.
Limits of the claim
This reading does not require reducing the Hajj to a purely symbolic act or denying its devotional and practical dimension. Nor should the atom be loaded with a philosophical meaning beyond what Arkoun’s own formulation allows.