ساز و كار تفسير محكم و متشابه از ديدگاه معرفت شناسي كلامي

Interpretation of Explicit and Ambiguous Verses from the Perspective of Theological Epistemology

The three expressions of muhkam (explicit), mutashabih (ambiguous) , and taʹwal ( hermeneutic interpretation) are Qurʹanic terms and since Long ago Muslim exegetes have had different views concerning thier meanings and extensions. In his TaXr al-mizan , Muhammad Hossein Taʹ-batabaʹi refers to 16 views concerning the meaning of muhkam and mutashabih and disagrees with all of them. Instead, he poses the 17th view without referring to any criterion in this regard. This article does not intend to offer a new interpretation of this verse, for this issue is a secondary study. Put in other words, by studying the epistemic foundations of each exegete concerning those verses on God, the author tries to show their relationship. The conclusion of this research is that those who believe in tanz-h ( declaration of incomparability) theology, consider the tanzihi verses of the Qurʹan as explicit and the tashbihi verses as ambiguous. On the contrary, those who believe in tashbihi theology consider tashbihi verses as expilicit and tanzihi verses as ambiguous. Both parties try to interprete ambiguous verses in a way to be in harmony with expilicit verses so as to bring about uniformity in the geometry of their epistemic views.