Formulation of the Claim
Arkoun calls for a comparative and structural reading of the Qur’an.
Explanation
This call is based on moving the reading of the Qur’an from mere traditional reception to an examination of its structure and its relations with other texts and contexts. In this sense, the text is not isolated from the history of its formation and interpretation, but is approached within a broader network of comparisons and analysis.
In Arkoun’s thought, comparative and structural reading makes it possible to question the prevailing ways of understanding the Qur’an, not in order to strip it of its sanctity, but to understand how meaning is constituted within Islamic culture. It is a reading that opens the text to modern research tools and prevents it from being reduced to inherited exegesis alone.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This atom comes within Arkoun’s broader project of reconsidering the study of the Qur’an as a foundational and central text in Islamic history. It intersects with his related theses that call for criticizing dominant modes of reading and for introducing analytical tools that make it possible to understand the text in its linguistic, historical, and cultural dimensions.
Limits of the Claim
This atom should not be burdened with the meaning of abolishing or fully replacing religious exegesis, nor should it be taken as a call for a purely technical reading detached from the horizon of meaning. The aim is to broaden the field of understanding and reorder the relationship to the text, not to reduce the Qur’an to a merely formal structure.