Formulation of the Claim
The book’s thesis is that Islam was formed historically and humanly within language, power, and memory
Explanation
The book builds Mohammed Arkoun’s project from the standpoint of his dual biography, as in the formation of Arkoun’s intermediary position from a multifaceted rural, educational, and colonial biography, then places this position in the service of Arkoun’s project, which reveals Islam’s humanity through a dual, non-absolutist critique. Its method is based on the Arkounian method, which deconstructs the episteme and goes beyond superficial description in order to understand how Islam moved from Islamic history’s transition from creative plurality to sectarian and epistemic closure to civilizational stagnation, which turns religion and knowledge into guardianship and repetition. For this reason, it reads the Qur’an and religion through the Qur’an and revelation as read within language, context, and historical संघर्ष and religion as symbolically formed through memory, time, mythologization, and meaning, then explains the effect of jurisprudence and power in the reshaping of religion by jurisprudence and authority within a struggle over legitimacy. The horizon culminates in modernity and universality, which reveal the limits of reason, violence, and legitimacy, where critique no longer becomes a destruction of religion, but a liberation of thought and faith from historical confiscation.
- the formation of Arkoun’s intermediary position from a multifaceted rural, educational, and colonial biography
- Arkoun’s project, which reveals Islam’s humanity through a dual, non-absolutist critique
- the Arkounian method, which deconstructs the episteme and goes beyond superficial description
- Islamic history’s transition from creative plurality to sectarian and epistemic closure
- civilizational stagnation, which turns religion and knowledge into guardianship and repetition
- the Qur’an and revelation as read within language, context, and historical struggle
- religion as symbolically formed through memory, time, mythologization, and meaning
- the reshaping of religion by jurisprudence and authority within a struggle over legitimacy
- modernity and universality, which reveal the limits of reason, violence, and legitimacy