The Application of Historical Semantics in Meaning Analysis of Hanīf in the Quran

Despite the unanimity of Quranic commentators and lexicographers on the semantic meaning of "Ḥanīf," there is a great disagreement between Islamic scholars and thinkers on the one hand and between lexicographers of Semitic languages and Orientalists on the other. In the works and writings of lexicographers and scholars who are not commentators, there are different and contradictory opinions, all of which show the complexity of the meaning of the word. The aim of this study is to gather the different views of the above thinkers, discover the origin of this difference and explain it scientifically using the theories of historical semantics. The results show that the meaning of the word "hanīf" in the view of Muslim scholars influenced by the new Qur’anic meaning differs from that of the Jāhilī, Jews and Christians. After the semantic optimization by the Qur'an, this word has found a completely different path of meaning among Muslims than the ordinary meaning in the age of ignorance (Jāhilīyyah), Judaism and Christianity.