The Semantic Development of the Verses About the Ignorance Era Customs in the Shī‘a and Sunnī Commentaries: The Case Study of Wa’d Custom in the Qur’ān 81:8-9

The Qur’ān entails verses that address the Arabic customs of the Ignorance Era. In the first glance, the people of the Ignorance Era are the addressees of these verses. Nonetheless, the Divine Speech provides general and comprehensive guidance for the humans in all eras, and each and every verse of it is imbued with the eternity and guidance attributes. Reflection in this direction requires extracting and analyzing the factors that limit a verse. In this article, the critical examination of the Shī‘a and Sunnī exegesis about the Qur’ān 81:8-9 is done through a descriptive-analytical method to shed light on the wa’d custom. To this end, the way exegetes have used the semantic capacities of the terms and their solutions for the expansion of the meaning of the verse – i.e., semantic development method – are extracted. The findings of the study show that solutions such as deduction via refinement of attributes as well as the annulment of particularities and reliance on the generality of the terms and interpretive narrations have been used by the Shī‘a and Sunnī exegetes to remove the limitations of the verses and expand the signification of the verses in accordance with their original meaning. Moreover, the eternity of the Qur’ān, its transtemporality and transcendence, and its guiding of all humans in all eras are also corroborated.