How Mohammed Arkoun Revolutionised Qur’anic Hermeneutics
By Adis Duderija, New Age Islam
16 April 2025
In an era marked by fervent debates surrounding the interpretation of sacred texts, the late Mohammed Arkoun (1928-2010)emerged as a pivotal figure who dared to dismantle conventional approaches to the Qur’an and construct a ground-breaking methodology for its understanding. Immersed in a time of significant socio-political upheaval within the Muslim world, Arkoun’s intellectual project, fundamentally a critique of Islamic reason, urged a profound reevaluation of the Islamic intellectual tradition. His work wasn’t merely a commentary on scripture; it was a radical paradigm shift, an intellectual excavation aimed at unearthing the “unthought” and “unthinkable” within Islamic thought3, offering a path toward a more nuanced and historically conscious engagement with the divine word.
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Mohammed Arkoun was an Algerian scholar and thinker. He was considered to have been one of the most influential secular scholars in Islamic studies ...
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Arkoun’s innovative methodology stemmed from a deep engagement with Western intellectual traditions, seamlessly weaving together insights from discourse analysis, semiotics, structuralism, structural anthropology, and the Annales school of history. He recognized the limitations of a purely philological approach. In contrast, Arkoun advocated for an inclusive vision of Islam, one that reintegrated marginalised, repressed, and discredited aspects of Muslim tradition into a holistic understanding6. His aim was to move beyond the “dogmatic enclosure” that often characterised both traditional Islamic scholarship and Eurocentric readings of Islam.
A cornerstone of Arkoun’s hermeneutics was the crucial distinction he drew between the “Qur’anic fact” (fait coranique) and the “Islamic fact” (fait islamique). The Qur’anic fact refers to the linguistic events that transpired during Muhammad’s lifetime. The Islamic fact, on the other hand, represents the established religion as it became encapsulated in the closed corpus of the holy text and subsequent tradition. This distinction is of major import, as it acknowledges the historical, cultural, and linguistic transformation that occurred from the initial revelation to its codification and interpretation over centuries. By separating these two, Arkoun provided an analytical framework that allowed for a rigorous historical, linguistic, hermeneutical, and anthropological analysis of the Qur’an. He emphasised that this distinction was not a criticism of religion itself but a method for a deeper understanding, free from theological or dogmatic presuppositions.
To navigate this complex terrain, Arkoun championed a multidimensional hermeneutical approach. He astutely combined religious anthropology, philosophical theology, historical analysis, and linguistic methods to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the scripture. His seminal work, Lectures du Coran (Readings of the Qur’an),), serves as a powerful demonstration of this method. In this collection of essays, Arkoun expanded his methodology by incorporating insights from linguistics, anthropology, and contemporary history, all while maintaining a critical philosophical perspective. He delved into the Arabic language system of the 6th and 7th centuries CE and explored the myths, rites, and religions of the Ancient Orient to provide a richer context for understanding the Qur’anic discourse.
Arkoun’s methodology also placed significant emphasis on the historical context of the Qur’an. He argued that revelation was intrinsically tied to its historical circumstances and shaped by the actors of that era. Understanding the political and intellectual landscape in which the Qur’an emerged was, for Arkoun, crucial for its comprehension. His own intellectual journey was deeply influenced by the socio-political changes within the Muslim world and the intellectual climate of mid-20th century France, where he encountered emerging critical movements like post-structuralism and historical discourse criticism. These influences shaped his call to rethink Islamic thought in response to the challenges faced by Muslim societies.
Arkoun also delved into the semiotics of religious language within the Qur’anic discourse, analysing the lexical and “marvellous” aspects of the text and their relationship to the consciousness produced by it. His examination of vocabulary related to authority and power in reference to Muhammad’s actions traced the emergence of Islamic reason. Even the central symbol of Islam, pilgrimage, was subjected to his analysis, revealing its connections to pre-Islamic history and its role in the development of religious symbolism, the unthought, and the transition from the Qur’anic to the Islamic fact. Through these detailed readings, Arkoun aimed to establish the historicity of the religious discourse.
In his other major hermeneutical work, Pour une Critique de la Raison Islamique (Toward a Critique of Islamic Reason), Arkoun further elaborated on his project. He questioned the conditions under which the idea of truth takes shape and influences both individual lives and collective history. This collection of essays can be seen as another facet of his critique of Islamic reason. Here, Arkoun outlined his vision for “applied Islamic studies”, a reflective and critical form of research that acknowledges its own limitations and seeks to address the forgotten or repressed aspects of Islamic thought, ultimately aiming to create space for free intellectual inquiry.
Arkoun’s innovative methodology, with its emphasis on historical context, linguistic analysis, and critical engagement with both tradition and modernity, represents a profound departure from conventional approaches to the Qur’an. He equipped scholars with a compelling and systematic framework for analysis, one that acknowledged the dynamic interplay between the divine message and its human reception and interpretation across time. His work has had a lasting impact, inspiring a new generation of scholars to engage with the Qur’an in a more historically informed and critically aware manner. His innovative methodology remains a vital tool for navigating the complexities of interpreting sacred texts in an ever-evolving intellectual landscape.
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Checkout Dr. Adis Duderija’s personal website at: https://dradisduderija.com/
A decades old patron of New Age Islam, Dr Adis Duderija is a Senior Lecturer in the Study of Islam and Society, School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science; Senior Fellow Centre for Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue, Griffith University | Nathan | Queensland | Australia. His forthcoming books are (co-edited) - Shame, Modesty, and Honour in Islam and Interfaith Engagement beyond the Divide (Springer)
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