Formulation of the Claim
In Arkoun’s view, Qur’anic discourse is directed toward action, not toward reliance on dictionary meaning alone.
Explanation
Arkoun understands Qur’anic discourse as a discourse that intervenes in guiding behavior and producing an effect, not as a mere verbal material from which independent lexical meanings are extracted. For that reason, the approach does not reduce itself to explaining words, but links them to their function within the religious and historical experience.
This means that reading should attend to what the discourse accomplishes in the recipient and the community, not to its lexical significance alone. Meaning here is tied to the action that the discourse leads to or calls for, not to a meaning detached from its pragmatic context.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This atom appears within Arkoun’s objection to readings that confine the Qur’an to the level of linguistic statement or literal interpretation. It also converges with his broader thesis on the need to reconsider modes of reading that overlooked the historical and functional dimension of religious discourse and confined themselves to deriving meanings from vocabulary.
Limits of the Claim
This atom does not mean that Qur’anic discourse carries no meaning, nor does it cancel linguistic or pragmatic interpretation. The point is only that the function of discourse cannot be reduced to dictionary meaning alone.