نشریه معارج
سال دوم شماره 2 (پیاپی 4، بهار و تابستان 1396)

One of the most important linguistic currents in the twentieth century is cognitive linguistics. It has specific claims about the relationship between language and reality and the way concepts are formed in the language and their relation to the mind. The author first describes the main claim of this current and outlines its important principles. These principles are: the principle of perspective, the principle of dynamism, the principle of encyclopedia, the principle of application and experience. Authenticity of interpretations is the most important achievement of the cognitive approach to Quran, whereby the interpreter must take the conceptualization of the Quran itself as his starting point and analyze it and avoid from reducing it to other conceptualizations. The interpreters have had different approaches to the conceptualization of Quran, and in some cases they have addressed them and, in other cases, have returned them to other conceptualizations. In the following, examples of the influence of these principles on the interpretation and understanding of Quran and the fate of the authenticity of interpretations principle in the verses have been reviewed and some cases in Tasnim Interpretation have also been investigated in this regard.

Methodical definition of Quran jurisprudential words plays an important role in the understanding of the divine intention of the meaning of these words. One of the Ayat Allah Javadi’s worthy works in Tasnim Interpretation is that he sets rules for finding the proper meaning of the jurisprudential words. There are three principles, in Tasnim Interpretation, for determining the meaning of Quran jurisprudential words: (1) recognizing the lexical meaning of the jurisprudential word; (2) discovering the Quranic meaning of the jurisprudential word; (3) recognizing the idiomatic meaning of the jurisprudential word. In Tasnim Interpretation, fourteen rules, following the three principles, has been observed to present the principles in a methodical way. In this paper, we discuss these principles and rules to present the reader with the correct and comprehensive method of defining the jurisprudential words of Quran, which is one of the scholarly innovations of Ayat Allah Javadi in his Tasnim Interpretation.

Cognitive linguistics, as an approach in studying language, investigates the relations between the human language and his mind, and presupposes the principle that language reflects the thoughts and mental properties of the speaker. In this science, studying language is considered as studying the patterns of conceptualization, the goal of which is determining the structure of the thoughts in the speaker’s mind. It is an appropriate tool for the interpreters of Quran that investigate the Quranic verses according to the cognitive theories and understand its conceptualizations in different situations, by which they can better find the God’s intention of His verses. Applying a cognitive approach, the present study investigates Ayat allah Javadi’s remarks and analyses in Tasnim Interpretation on the concept of ‘Ayah’ in the sections related to the natural phenomena, and the conceptualizations of these phenomena in this interpretation. In his discussions, the interpreter points to the cognitive theories like causal windows and conceptual metaphor and presents his interpretation along with the conceptualizations of Ayah.

Finding the intentions behind the verses is the ultimate goal of Quranic studies, so that many elements contribute for achieving this goal. Interpretative narratives are the most valuable elements for finding the intentions of verses. The relationship between the goals of semantics and the interpretive narratives reinforces the hypothesis that one can explore the signs of semantics in the holy shariah, and as the flow of this seemingly new science unfolds, one can take a step towards reviving the science of interpretation with the method used by Ahl al-bayt. The multifaceted meaning of Quran verses, emphasized in the hadiths of Ahl al-bayt, provides a ground for multiple, different interpretations. The semantic analysis of interpretative narratives is important because it reduces the possibility of multiple non-systematic readings of Quran. The achievements of the Muslim interpreters are a good ground for exploring new sciences, such as semantics, and should not be neglected, because it would lead to contradictions between traditional interpretations and new systematic patterns. Explaining some semantic patterns and matching them with Ayat Allah Javadi’s interpretative writings, the present paper seeks to set about this supposition that one can correspond semantic achievements to these writings and to some extent proves that the trace of many of semantic rules could be found in his Quranic analyses.

Understanding the Quranic verses requires true principles for text understanding. Comparative study is a tool able to show the merits and defects of different methods. According to new researches, cognitive linguistics, as a branch of modern linguistics, has demonstrated its capabilities as a method for understanding the meaning of Quranic verses. Both the Cognitive prototype theory and traditional theory of the spirit of meaning can be used to analyze allegorical words or words with different meanings and usages in Quran. So the comparison between these two in an appropriate domain will show their advantages and usefulness in respect to each other. In many cases in his interpretation, Allame Javadi Amoli applies this traditional theory; therefore we have used his analysis according to this theory for comparing this analysis with the cognitive linguistics analysis. Differences and similarities between these two theories will be clarified when we compare their analysis of words like Mizan, Arsh, Taqva, and Zawq. Their differences are most visible in single meaning and also in their flexibility in respect to the meaning in different situations.

Scholars in the field of religious studies have always been concerned with religious text, especially the Quran, to understand their propositions, the evidence of which is the interpretations of holly texts. Quran, as an undistorted divine text, provides an opportunity for applying new methods of text analysis. One of these new methods is semantic studies that, considering its capabilities, could be in the service of understanding the text of Quran. In his Tasnim Interpretation, Ayat allah Javadi applies the Quran-by-Quran method of interpretation. This interpretation method and Javadi’s point of view raise semantic considerations like semantic networks, intertextual relations, contexts of verses, and lexical debates. Of course, the mission of this interpreter has not been to present an interpretation according to semantic rules, especially the cognitive semantics, so its application is dispersed and inconsistent.