Exploring the Implication of Hidāya in (Q. 14: 21); the Qur’anic Interpretive Heritage, Context, and Semantic Opposition

Abstract

The Muslim interpretive heritage, which is left from the predecessors, includes enduring views that can greatly influence the Qur’anic exegetes in later periods. As a matter of fact, it seems that some dominant exegetical discourses have emerged within the traditional interpretive viewpoints, as far as the subsequent readings have been somehow formed by the suggested ones. However, achieving a better understanding and reading of the Qur’anic verses depends on examining, analyzing, and criticizing the traditional interpretive products, using the interpretive principles and rules. The present article, which has been organized with a descriptive-analytical research method, has re-read the Qur’anic usage of the word hidāya (guidance), which has occurred twice in (Q. 14:21). After examining and criticizing the exegetical viewpoints, it attempts to reach in an innovative way to give a new interpretive insight concerning the implication of the mentioned word in the verse in question, applying some criteria such as context, symmetry of confrontation, proportion of question and answer, semantic degradation and exaltation, and avoiding the affectation from the realm of divine word. Finally, answering in advance the most significant problems and ambiguities in front of the preferred viewpoint of the present article concerning the mentioned word is another part of it

Keywords

• context
• symmetry of confrontation
• proportion of question and answer
• intercession
• guidance into the religious order