Some reflections can be made about the common term in exegetical studies, namely the Narrative Interpretation Method. Since this method is usually mentioned in contrast to the discretionary (ijtihadī) method, the incorrect enunciation of the relationship between reason and narration, along with the confusion of the wāqi‘a (a hadith directly heard from the Infallible) and maḥkīyya (a hadith received through chain of transmitters) tradition has established an untenable version of this method. In the present article, the term narrative interpretation method has been fundamentally criticized on three axes. The proponents of this method have no acceptable justification for these three axes. Finally, the author reached the conclusion that a significant part of the conventional interpretive efforts in the method known as the ijtihadī interpretation method are concerned with analyzing the weakened evidence due to the gradual distance from the time of the issuance of the text. Therefore, it is neither correct to describe the method of the interpreters of the earlier period as being far from ijtihad, nor to place every narration under the general heading of interpretation simply because of its connection with a verse of the Qur'an; as merely expressing narrations under the verses cannot create a method called the narrative interpretation method.
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