Formulation of the Claim
Rejection and unbelief sever the connection with Qur’anic discourse.
Explanation
Arkoun understands this rupture as a refusal to receive the content of divine speech in a way that opens onto its meaning. The rejecting stance does not enter into a relation of response with the discourse; rather, it reduces it to what provokes astonishment without reaching its signification.
Here the importance of consciousness in reception becomes evident for Arkoun: the mere presence of the discourse itself is not enough; its effect depends on the manner of opening oneself to it. Rejection therefore becomes a sign that this connection has been disabled and transformed into a separating distance.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This atom falls within Arkoun’s distinction between merely confronting Qur’anic discourse and becoming engaged in it. It supports his general thesis that the reception of revelation is not automatic, but is tied to the stance of the recipient and to the readiness to enter into the horizon of signification opened by the discourse.
Limits of the Claim
The atom should not be made to bear a sweeping judgment on every form of disagreement, questioning, or critique. Nor does it mean that Arkoun reduces the relationship with Qur’anic discourse to a simple binary between acceptance and rejection.
Brief Evidence Passage
Second: the occurrence of a rupture with the necessities and obligations of faith (Table no. 1) appears from the emergence of the first negative stances of the Meccans toward the Qur’anic proclamation, expressed by the vocabulary of protest and rejection (Table no. 3), and reaches its maximum extent at the level of (Table no. 4), where we find the vocabulary of unbelief. This rupture with faith means the absence of sensory perception of the content of divine speech (which is the object of perception as such). This results either from the inability of those who reject the call to do so, or from a deliberate rejection grounded in another climate of verses and signs already known before the appearance of Islam. Here it should be known that the vocabulary of protest, rejection, and unbelief in the new call has a dual and highly illuminating function for mo
Nearby Links
- The Wondrous