Methodology of Ayatollah Ma'refat’s Interpretation (Comparative Study with Hermeneutics)

This article seeks to discover the commonalities and differences between two methodological categories and to reach an intersubjective understanding of them. By hermeneutics, the author means general and methodological hermeneutics. In this article, the views of Hirsch and Betty are first examined, and then the meanings of “interpretation” and “esoteric exegesis” (ta’wīl) from the perspective of Ayatollah Ma'refat are examined. The importance of the linguistic structure of the Qur'an in creating a new linguistic culture and the impact of the audience’s mental space on interpretation are also other topics that will be examined. Finally, after a comparative study of these issues, the author has reached the following conclusions: 1. The existence of a general method exists in both categories under study; 2. Since Hirsch's hermeneutics includes two stages of going beyond the literal meaning to reach meaningfulness, it has a remarkable correspondence with the meaning of ta’wīl from the perspective of Ayatollah Ma'refat, who believes in abstracting general concepts from the verse, but considers a single meaning for the text that does not provide a method for achieving it; 3. Despite the constraint of subjectivity, asymmetric hermeneutics believes in the free interpretation and translation of the Qur'an for the understanding and use of everyone, so despite the similarity that exists in its result with Ayatollah Ma'refat's method, it operates in a different way in practice.