Formulation of the Claim
Arkoun sees applied Islamology as needing to turn toward the questions and problems of the age, rather than remaining purely descriptive or purely traditional knowledge.
Explanation
In this view, the value of the study of Islamology lies not only in collecting information about tradition, but in understanding the relationship between religion, society, and politics, and in uncovering the presence of tradition within the crises of the present. For this reason, this discipline is connected, in Arkoun’s view, to contemporary cognitive and social needs, not to an isolated academic exercise.
This means that the function of study shifts from explaining the past to interrogating the reality that lives under the effects of that past. The proposed science thus gives the reading of tradition a critical dimension, and makes it tied to the transformations and problems confronting the Islamic world.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
This claim defines the place of the entire project within the book, because it shows that Arkoun is not proposing merely an improvement of traditional studies, but a redefinition of their purpose. Through it, understanding tradition becomes part of understanding the present, and the study of Islamology becomes a tool for engaging historical transformation rather than merely reproducing inherited knowledge.
Limits of the Claim
This claim does not mean that applied Islamology offers direct solutions to every crisis, nor that it abolishes the value of traditional knowledge itself. Nor should it be burdened with more than being a call to connect study with criticism and with current questions.