Formulation of the claim
Arkoun sees the Qur’an as insisting both on the truth of the stories and parables it contains and on their exemplary character.
Explanation
For Arkoun, this idea rests on the fact that Qur’anic narratives are not presented as passing tales, but as forms that carry a normative significance beyond the act of narration itself. Here, “exemplarity” means that the story is invoked to perform a religious and cognitive function, not merely to inform.
This claim is understood within Arkoun’s concern with how Qur’anic discourse operates in the formation of meaning. He therefore does not focus on a simple correspondence between the story and the historical event, but on the way the Qur’anic narrative grants the example, the lesson, and symbolic authority.
Its place in the book’s argument
This atom falls within Arkoun’s reading of the Qur’an as a text that produces meaning through specific discursive forms, including narratives and parables. It aligns with his broader theses on the need to distinguish between the functions of Qur’anic discourse and readings that reduce it to direct historical narration or to the mere reporting of facts.
Limits of the claim
This atom should not be burdened with a detailed judgment on every individual Qur’anic story, nor should it be turned into a fully formed theory of Qur’anic narrative. Nor does it, by itself, suffice to explain the relationship between history and exemplarity in Arkoun’s thought.