Formulation of the Claim
The text argues for a modern scientific reading of the Qur’an.
Explanation
Arkoun links this claim to the call to approach the Qur’an as a text that enters the field of modern scientific inquiry, not merely as material for traditional reading alone. What is meant is to open the text to the questions of contemporary knowledge, and to the tools of analysis that make it possible to examine it in its historical and intellectual context.
Within this perspective, scientific reading is not an alternative to faith or a declaration of a polemical position, but an attempt to move beyond the limits of inherited approaches when the text is enclosed within a single final commentary. The phrase therefore belongs to Arkoun’s effort to renew the understanding of religious texts and place them within a broader critical horizon.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This atom lies at the heart of Arkoun’s thesis on the necessity of rethinking the ways in which the Qur’an and the foundational Islamic texts are approached. It aligns with the book’s other calls for critique and for moving beyond closed readings that confine meaning to the traditional exegesis alone.
It is also connected to what Arkoun proposes regarding the relationship between religion and modern knowledge, and the need for analytical tools that allow for a deeper understanding of the Islamic experience. For this reason, it is not an isolated statement but part of a broader project of reconstructing the very question of reading.
Limits of the Claim
The atom should not be loaded with more than it can bear in terms of method or direct practical results. It points to a general direction in reading, not to a fully developed technical program or a final judgment on the Qur’an.