Application of Hermeneutics to Muslim's Interpretive Texts (With Emphasis on Political Thought Literature)

Hermeneutics, as one of the most important branches of knowledge under human sciences, has its roots in the West. As a newly emerged knowledge in the field of culture, hermeneutics has shown its unremitting influence on some sciences, particularly on interpretive texts of the West, to reserve a highly valuable status for itself in human intellectualism. With respect to the introduction of hermeneutics to the world of Islam, this paper explicates the two subdivisions of philosophical and methodological hermeneutics. Philosophical hermeneutics is interpreter-oriented while methodological hermeneutics is author-oriented. The paper tries to explore the common fundamentals between classic hermeneutics and the interpretive method of the Muslims in understanding religious texts and the religious thought literature. Therefore, the principal question this paper proposes is this: From the two philosophical and methodological hermeneutics, which one is compatible with text interpretation style of Muslims and their thoughts? The findings of the paper show that philosophical hermeneutics is not an appropriate method for interpretation of the sacred texts of the Muslims due to its relativistic approach in interpretation of the texts. Therefore, methodological hermeneutics – for its author-oriented approach – is appropriate for interpretation of the religious texts of the Muslims.