Reappraisal of the Verse, “Everyone Has a Cynosure to which he Turns; so Take the Lead in All Good Work”

Verse 148 of Surat Al-Baqarah is one of the most difficult verses in the Qur'an due to the multiple meanings of the words. Each word in this verse is the subject of disagreement among interpreters, in such a way that they have stated multiple meanings for each word. The multiple semantic possibilities for each word have made it very difficult to understand and interpret the verse and to grasp the message of the verse, in such a way that by calculating the probabilities and multiplying the possible meanings of one word by the possible meanings of other words, we will encounter dozens of different messages. The interpretations of the aforementioned words and consequently the messages derived from them are a matter of reflection and doubt in several respects, some of the most important of which are the confusion of concepts, incompatibility with the context, and disregard for the Qur'anic usage. The selected perspective of the author of this research is to interpret wa li kulli to refer to all divine religions and prophets, to interpret wijhahu to refer to the path and religion, to return the reference of the pronoun huwa to God, to interpret muwalliha to refer to the subject noun, and to interpret fastabiqu al-khayrāt to mean the command to take precedence in doing good deeds. This perspective does not have the shortcomings of other theories and, in addition, it is consistent with the subject of the verse and the principle of continuity of the verses. This research was conducted using the library study method and along with the examination and evaluation of different theories in the interpretation of the verse, and its goal is to criticize and evaluate different theories.