The methodology of social exegesis of the Quran

The Holy Quran having a limited size contains an extensiveamount of human’s knowledge. The holy Quran has given the top priority to the religious principles and then to the socio-historical reflections. These verses on the one hand show the significance and necessity of these subjects and on the other hand demonstrate the prime concern of the Quran to these questions. It entails that there should exist a social interpretation of the Quran too. The current writing firstly points at the exegetes’ method in interpreting these verses. He actually draws attention to different rational, mystical, theological, traditional and Quranic exegetical approaches along with the general principles governing the exegesis. The writer underscores the point that social exegesis enjoys particular foundations and methods and can be presented in a comprehensive Ijtihadi (Independent Reasoning) method that ends to production of knowledge. This method, however, escapes from two radical traditional and liberal interpretations. In social exegesis, the exegete pays attention to intellect, avoids Israelite traditions, focuses deeply on contemporary needs and studies the Quran from social perspective. Later, he describes briefly the methodological differences of the Quran with the dominant scientific methods and says that the Quran does not limit its self in particular frameworks and uses various rational, historical, sacred and sometimes combined methods. But what must be kept in mind about the methodology of Quran is that a monotheistic spirit should dominate all these methods otherwise turning a blind eye to this fact makes this discussion an incomplete debate.