An Approach to the Role of Context in the Exegetic Differences between Ayatollah Sadeqi Tehrani and Ayatollah Javadi Amoli in the Verse of Shortening the Prayers

One of the rational principles of conversation among human beings is attention to the context of words to understand their meaning and intent. Discovering the meanings and intent of verses of the Quran is also not exempt from this because they have been revealed in accordance with human language and the rules that govern it. Quranic exegetes have a consensus regarding the actual necessity of a ttention to contexts in exegesis; however, they differ in their views and way of utilizing context and this matter has played an effective role in the emergence of exegetic differences. The present study has been organized with the aim of examining and evaluating the approaches of Sadeqi Tehran and Javadi Amoli regarding the types of contexts and their effects on the exegetic differences about the verse of shortening the prayers using an analytic-comparative method. The findings of the study show that the two exegetes operate differently in their approach to context and its applications in the interpretation of the verse despite being aligned in their exegetic methods and religious denomination and this matter has a great impact on the exegetic differences between the two. Given that Sadeqi Tehrani is inclined, to a great extent, to Quran-sufficiency in interpretation, he has mostly used the conjunct and disjunct contextual proofs of verses and since he has a critical view toward narrations, has used narrative contexts less in the interpretation of the verse. However, even though Javadi Amoli has used proofs such as context and conjunct verses, considering that he regards the abovementioned verse as one of the verses that contain a religious ruling and that there are reliable narrations from the Infallibles (peace be upon them) that explain it, he has mostly used the disjunctive context of narrations.