A Study and Analysis of the Nature, Possibility, Conditions, and Necessity of a Philosophical Understanding of the Quran*

here is a mutual relation between the Quran and Islamic philosophy. Just as the Quran was influential on Islamic philosophy, the latter affected how we understand Quranic teachings. By a philosophical understanding of the Quran I mean the grasp of the ultimate meanings of the Quran by deployment of the philosophical method or exploitation of philosophical doctrines and propositions. In this article, I consider the nature, possibility and permissibility, conditions, and necessity of a philosophical understanding of the Quran. By adopting a descriptive-analytic method, I show that there is no problem in understanding the Quran through the philosophical method. However, there are two ways in which philosophical doctrines, including philosophical theories, principles, proofs, and propositions can be deployed in the understanding of the Quran: comparative-interpretative and analytic. The former leads to personal speculations or “interpretation with personal opinions” (al-tafsīr bi-l-raʾy), which is impermissible according to Muslim scholars, but the latter is permissible (if not necessary) under certain conditions.