نشریه پژوهش دینی
سال نهم شماره 19 (پاییز و زمستان 1388)

Mu’tazilites interpreted the Quran relying on their own belief system and centrality of human intellect and in cases where their interpretation contradicted human intellect and their belief system، they resorted to ta’vil. Their belief in man’s freedom in his deeds، purification of God from incarnation and evils، rejection of superstitions and myths، and denial of intercession and the like gave extension to their ta’vils. Making use of instruments such as intellect، literature meaning vocabulary، semantic structure of statements، well-known readings of the Quran، and sound narrations، they interpreted the Quran and got so involved in a kind of extremism in intellectual ta’vils that their Ash’arite and Sunnite opponents accused them of senselessness and interpreting the Quran by their personal opinion.

Undoubtedly، one of the dangerous blights which has afflicted the narrative interpretations and the interpretive narrations are the exaggerative ideas and beliefs of the narrators which have sometimes led to hadith fabrication or semantic forgery and incorrect ta’vil of the Quranic verses. Developing cognizance of this phenomenon especially in the field of interpretive narrations involves some problems: the precise meaning of exaggeration and its bordering line with the real virtues of the infallible leaders of the religion (a. s.)، the required criteria for the recognition of exaggerators and their exaggerative beliefs as well as the exaggerating narrators or narrators accused of exaggeration are not that much clear. Some of the questions dealt with in this article are: What kind of role and influence have the exaggerators had in fabrication of interpretive narrations and/or false ta’vils? What is the number of the narrators accused of exaggeration and the exaggerated narrations?

Historical interpretation or the interpretation based on the revelation order of the Quran has a short life and its procedure، advantages and principles have not been made cogent yet; hence، a lot of people have revolted against it. This article aims at explaining some of the most important advantages، principles and techniques of this interpretation method. Historical interpretation is considered the best interpretation method for the Quran because this book is a historical text and it was revealed during 23 years and following the requirements of the age of the divine mission of the Prophet. The rationale behind the revelation of the Quran according to a particular order applies to the interpretation of the Quran too. Almost all the chapters of the Quran were revealed all at once; a few chapters were revealed gradually and some parts of these chapters were revealed successively and there was not any long time interval between them. On the basis of the arrangement pointed out in the narrations related to the revelation order of the Quran and the critical outlook on it due to some problems، we can find out a definite arrangement of the chapters of the Quran and use it as a basis for the interpretation of the history of the Quran.

One of the significant issues in Sharif Lähiji’s interpretation is his utilization of narrations related to differences of readings of the Quran. This article presents various types of these readings together with some evidence on each type providing a short biography of the interpreter. The writer merely explains these readings and leaves their judgment to the readers.

In the 14th century، some scholars were attracted towards the interpretation method based on the revelation order of the Quran. Their chief aim was to gain cognizance of the Quranic concepts on the basis of the wisdom which lies behind the gradual revelation of the Quranic verses since God Almighty revealed the verses of the Quran according to the cultural-social conditions of the revelation age. However، for some reasons، making use of this interpretation method is not admissible: first، by making use of this method the Divine Wisdom behind the arrangement of the verses and chapters of the Quran which is called ‘the knowledge of pertinence between the verses and chapters of the Quran’ is disregarded. Second، there is no definite opinion about the revelation order of the chapters of the Quran، let alone the verses. The same point is true about the Meccan and Medinite verses and chapters of the Quran: some chapters of the Quran were not revealed all at once; some of their verses or a large part of them were revealed at one time and the remaining part was revealed on another occasion. In some cases، a part of a chapter is Meccan and another part is Medinite.

Examination of some of the interpretation methods and approaches of the Quran is one of the issues which has been under the scrutiny of the researchers of the Quran during the recent years. By reviewing the books written on this issue we will find out that most of the works of interpretation authored before and during the 14th century have followed narrative، jurisprudential، theological، literary، gnostic، philosophical، allusive، and other approaches. However، the opening of the 14th century and the attempts of individuals such as Ahmad Khan، Sheikh Mohammad Abdoh and Rashid Reza gave a new direction to the interpretation of the Quran. The new interpretation methods of this period can be generally classified into three groups: authentic Islamic methods، Western methods and miscellaneous methods. This article introduces the modern interpretation methods of the present age.

Some modernist Muslim scholars such as Amin al-Kholi and his wife، Mohammad Arkon، Davood Rahbar، Nasr Hamed Aboozeid، etc. have tried to elevate and represent the stylistic features of the Quran in the best way by making use of the literary study methods in examining the principles of vocabulary selection، characteristics of the structure of the sentences، and the figures of speech employed in the verses of the Quran. These scholars looked upon the Quran as an artistic-literary work which had to be interpreted by making use of modern literary investigations and its historical context. Thus، they made every possible attempt to develop a new theory for the literary and historical interpretation of the Quran. In this article، we have attempted to carefully recognize، analyze and report the viewpoints and attitudes of these scholars on the literary and historical interpretation of the Quran.

Fazl al-Rahmän was a Muslim modernist who attempted to criticize and analyze the methodology of Islamic studies، to make religion more efficient in modern world and to pave the way for the establishment of a religious society. Following a short discussion on the nature of his beliefs، this article introduces Fazl al-Rahmän’s interpretation method and some of his hermeneutic assumptions and their correspondence with classic and neoclassic hermeneutic principles.