Rules Governing the Use of Interpretive Narratives

Interpretative narratives, which are the most important sources of understanding the verses of the Qur'an, are narratives that explain God's purpose from the verse or provide the context for its understanding. Full enjoyment of interpretive narratives is based on rules. The researcher in the field of interpretation can avoid making errors and mistakes in the interpretation process and achieve the true purpose of God through observing these instructions and rules. Although some of these rules have been the focus of scholars of interpretation and have been used in the process of interpretive research, these rules have not yet been fully and solidly provided. The current study, by using a library-based descriptive-analytic method, has dealt with the analysis of the rules for the use of interpretive narratives in two rational and narrative sections. In the section of rational rules, the items such as avoidance of extremes in the efficacy of interpretive narrations, focusing on the inconsistency in the interpretive narratives, etc. and in the section of narrative rules such as the necessity of identifying weak and fabricated traditions, awareness of adaptations and extreme interpretations, concentrating on semantic development in the narratives and so on, have been considered. The rational rules governing the use of interpretive narratives are derived directly from reason and its analyses. Avoiding the extremes in the efficacy of interpretive narratives, the necessity to distinguish between narratives based on commentary, interpretation, and comparison; paying attention to the intrinsic inconsistency of interpretive narratives, the necessity of benefiting from all the interpretive narratives related to the verse, considering the books of interpretation insufficient, the accurate matching of the narratives to the verses, are some of the things that have been explained as rational rules in this study.