A Comparative Research on the Epochality of Understanding the Qur’an from the Viewpoints of Mughniya and Shaltut

The epochality of understanding the Qur’an as one of the requirements for the eternality and universality of the Holy Qur’an means that with a new outlook one can respond to the addressees’ needs and take into consideration the socio-cultural conditions and exigencies of any epoch; what has been influential in new understanding of the Qur’an and refreshed the concepts of this Revealed scripture in any time and place with any folk by means of any new interpretation that this book has the capacity for. With a descriptive-analytical method, this research has in a comparative way delved into the epochality of understanding the Qur’an in two significant Sunni interpretations (Tafsīr al-Kāshif, and Tafsīr al-Qur’an al-Karīm). The findings of this research show that Mughniya, with a convincing approach, and Shaltut, with a reconciliatory approach, have made their interpretations epochal; that is to say, the requirements and exigencies of time and place have caused these two interpreters with two different approaches in understanding the Qur’an both to accept epocality as a basis and believe in the impact of epocality and have mentioned such instances as the verses of science in the Qur’an, determining new referents, and the necessity for responding to the misconceptions concerning the elements of epochality of understanding the Qur’an. In the meantime, Mughniya has accepted the expandability of meaning in understanding and interpreting the Qur’an as one of the elements of epocality of understanding the Qur’an and Shaltut considers it as opposing the rhetoric and the educational and guiding objectives of the Qur’an.