The Critical Analysis of the Views of Allāma Tabātabā’i and Āyatollāh Ma’refat about the Interior of the Noble Qur’an

One of the challenging discussions about the Qur’an is the issue of its interior that has been confronted with different analyses of the commentators. The ideas of Allāma Tabātabā’i and Āyatollāh Ma’refat in this regard are sometimes either different or contradictory so the present study using a descriptive-analytical approach reviews how and why the views of these two contemporary Shi’ite interpreters about the Qur’anic Interior and its relevant aspects are different. The results show that: 1. Both of the commentators regard Batn (the interior) as merely “meaning” but in their exegesis, they also consider an “evidence” for that named “interpretation “and “adaptation”; based on traditions, the Interior should be recognized as “meaning” and “evidence”; 2. Allāma regards the interior identical with the words comparative objectives and Āyatollāh Ma’refat considers it to be the obligatory objective of the speech but the interior evidences of Allāma have obligatory implications as well; 3. Allāma maintains that the spread of the interior encompasses all the Qur’anic verses and Āyatollāh Ma’refat after disregarding the interior for the verses of Ahkām, deals with that in his subsequent works and considers a wide range for the verses that have the interior; 4. both thinkers do not hold achieving the interior limited to those who are infallible but Allāma maintains that its discovery would be possible through contemplation and Āyatollāh Ma’refat believes that it is possible by Tanqih-e Manāt (inference), negation of the feature, and making that public.