Critique of Social tendency of “The Contemporary Interpretation of the Holy Quran” [= “The Study Quran”]

“The Contemporary Interpretation of the Holy Quran” [= “The Study Quran”] is one of the latest Quranic researches in the West, entitled “The Study Quran” was published in 2015 in San Francisco, under the editorship of Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Given that this interpretation has been written in the Western world, it is important to critique it and pay attention to the interpretive method of this exegesis. Although the title of the translation of this commentary is “The Contemporary Interpretation of the Holy Quran”; but this interpretation cannot be considered as a modern and up-to-date commentary on the Holy Quran. This research uses library resources [= desk research] and descriptively-analytically to examine the methodology of this interpretation. The results of the research indicate that this exegesis has used the traditionalist [= Perennial Philosophical] method to cite the quotations of the earlier commentators of the two major Islamic sects [of Shia and Sunni]. The most important characteristics of social interpretation of the Quran are: paying attention to the verses of the Quran to solve social problems, applying Quranic teachings and appropriate answers to eliminate the social doubts, paying attention to the pedagogical teachings of the Quran, using a clear and all-understandable expression, paying attention to rationalism, paying attention to authentic sciences in interpreting the verses of the Quran, refraining from interpreting the ambiguities [mubhamat] of the Quran, avoiding the wide range of theological, literary, jurisprudential debates and differences in recitations [qira’at], avoiding the forged narrations and Israelites; This exegesis has adhered to only three characteristics i.e. using a clear and all-understandable expression, avoiding the interpreting the ambiguities [mubhamat] of the Quran, and voiding the wide range of theological, literary, jurisprudential debates and differences in recitations [qira’at]. Hence, such an interpretation with a traditionalist [= Perennial Philosophical] approach, contrary to the title of “contemporary”, causes the neglecting of the Quran in the Western world and prevents the pedagogical, guiding, and social teachings of the Quran from the lovers of Quran in the Western world.