Formulation of the Claim
The history of the interpretation of the Hajj reveals that this rite acquired broad spiritual and cosmic meanings in some traditional readings, before its horizon later narrowed under the dominance of jurisprudence and formal codification.
Why Do These Elements Belong Together?
These elements belong together because they trace a single trajectory in the transformation of the meaning of the Hajj within tradition. Traditional testimonies reveal the accumulation of the meanings of the Hajj shows that the Hajj was not understood as one fixed meaning, but rather as surrounded by layered deposits of memory and history. Likewise, al-Ghazali and al-Qummi endow the Hajj with cosmic spiritual meanings broaden the rite’s horizon from within, by linking it to death, the hereafter, the cosmos, and symbol.
By contrast, later jurisprudence empties the Hajj of its spiritual horizon shows how the Hajj was readjusted within the limits of form and letter, so that its spiritual dimension receded in favor of procedure and codification. As for The Hajj itself, it remains the center at which these transformations intersect, because it reveals how a rite moves from plurality in meaning to narrowing in reception.
Place of the Cluster in the Book
This page falls within Mohammed Arkoun’s reading of the Qur’an as a reading that follows the history of meaning and its transformations, rather than treating the text as a complete and fixed meaning. Here, the Hajj appears as a clear example of the fact that rites are not understood outside the history of their interpretation, because their significance is formed between traditional testimony, spiritual reading, and then juridical readjustment.
Elements of the Cluster
- al-Ghazali and al-Qummi endow the Hajj with cosmic spiritual meanings
- The Hajj
- Traditional testimonies reveal the accumulation of the meanings of the Hajj
- later jurisprudence empties the Hajj of its spiritual horizon
Brief Evidence Passage
The page follows the trajectory of the Hajj as an example of the movement of meaning within tradition, where its spiritual and symbolic meanings expanded in some readings before it was readjusted within a more codified juridical horizon. The rite is therefore not understood here as a fixed given, but as an object shaped by successive layers of interpretation. At this point, the description of religious meaning converges with a critique of the tendency that confines it to form and procedure. Thus the Hajj appears as a domain that reveals how jurisprudence can narrow what had been broader in symbolic and cosmic experience.
Conclusion
This page shows that, in Arkoun’s reading, the Hajj is a rite that underwent symbolic and spiritual expansion within tradition, before later being subjected to a juridical narrowing that made its spiritual horizon more restricted.