Formulation of the claim
Qur’anic reading raises difficulty in interpreting the word or form, because the meaning does not appear direct in every instance, but instead requires an interpretation that takes context and language into account.
Explanation
What is meant here is that some Qur’anic words or forms are not read as immediately clear in meaning at first glance, but instead open up a question about how they are to be understood: does the matter concern a word that is ambiguous, a form that admits more than one reading, or a construction that requires recourse to context in order to be understood? The difficulty, then, is not in recitation itself, but in the semantic reading of the word.
Its place in the book’s argument
This idea falls within the book’s attempt to show that the Qur’anic text is not exhausted by an immediate surface meaning, and that engaging with it requires attention to language, history, and the context of semantic formation, rather than settling for a literal reading.
What the atom does not say
It does not say that all Qur’anic wording is obscure, nor that meaning is impossible, but rather indicates that certain passages impose an interpretive effort in order to understand the form or the signification.