The Ethics of Interpreting the Holy Quran

Phenomenon of understanding the meaning of a text is highly taken into consideration and viewed from different perspectives nowadays. Hermeneutics is among those detailed discussions related to this field. Among discussions related to the phenomenon of understanding and its explanation as well as interpretation is ethics of them: whether or not man has any responsibility to the text he is trying to understand. In other words, is there any criterion for true understanding and interpreting the text or is man free to interpret the text and to attribute what he understands to the text and its author? When related to the sacred texts and the Holy Quran, the issue becomes of more significance. Relying on Islamic texts, the present paper attempts to expound the ethical theory of understanding and interpretation, clarify moral responsibility of those addressed by texts, and discuss the scope of understanding and interpretation with respect to moral criteria especially in relation to the Holy Quran.