The exegetes’ approach to confrontation of siyāq (context) with respect to the traditions when inferring the denotation of verses dealing with the women (a case study of the fourth surah)

The criteria applied by the exegetes to infer the denotations of the verses have varied in different periods. In some periods of the history of exegesis the only criterion or the most important accepted one has been the tradition, while in some other periods the context has taken precedence over the tradition. At times the exegetes let these two indications interact. Based on the type of the applied criterion, the exegetes have achieved meaningful results about the verses dealing with the women in the fourth surah of the Qur’an. Having applied a descriptive-analytical approach regarding the content of exegeses, this article follows up this interaction. The result of this study indicates that in the issue of interaction of the context with the traditions the contemporary exegetes, in particular, have mostly preferred the context to the traditions. Generally speaking, two types of interaction are seen in the issue of inferring of the denotation of verses of the fourth surah of the Qur’an in the field of the women: 1) collective interaction (general), 2) slight interaction (particular) and that the latter has been more frequent.