An Introduction to the Use of Semantic Approaches in Quran Studies

The Quran as an everlasting source includes various cross-sectional and longitudinal levels and layers. Islamic sciences have always emphasized making use of all the layers of meanings of the Quran. The scholars and researchers of Quranic studies of each era have benefitted from a particular set of instruments and approaches to explore and exploit some new horizons of this holy book. The modern era gave rise to literary criticism، linguistics and semantics and provided new instruments with novel functions for exploring the infinite meanings of the Quran. Although semiotics، historical methods and some other modern methods and instruments have commonly been used during the modern era، semantics is of particular importance in Quranic studies. What we need to consider in using these methods and instruments is their adaptation and making them well-suit the Quranic studies and Islamic culture. The present study examines how these methods can be employed in the specialized field of semantics introducing semantics of Ben’s school، cognitive semantics، stratified semantics and philosophical semantics in Quranic studies.