Is this right to do scientific interpretation (Tafseer-i ilmi) of the Holy Qur’an and derive scientific laws from its verses?
Answer
The Qur’an was initially revealed to the Arabs of the time of the Holy Prophet (sws). The first and foremost objective of its revelation was to guide the humans in religious matters and explain the realities to them in ultimate form and leave them with no excuse to remain wandering in darkness. The Holy Qur’an repeatedly asserts that it is in the clearest language so that the addressees are clear about the final guidance of the Almighty. Since rejecting the Qur’an entailed great significance and the future of the addressees on the earth and in the Last day depended on their response to the message of the Holy Qur’an it was imperative that the Almighty spoke to them in their language and that every word in the Book had clear meaning to them. Therefore, the Muslim scholars have always been alive to the fact that the words of the Qur’an have to be understood as they were taken to mean by the Arabs of that time.
The actual message of the verses would remain what the direct addressees of the Book understood it to mean. While ignoring this fact many try to give new meanings to the words of the Qur’an. This is just to put your words in the mouth of the Creator and give meaning to the verses of His Book which were never intended. How can we imagine God for example sending a Book to the seventh century Arabs replete with concepts to be discovered in the 20th century and at the same time repeatedly claiming that it is a Book clear to those who want to take heed and on this message and their future depends on it for eternity?
The verses used to prove such a project never meant what some scholars think them today to mean. All these claims collide head on with the Qur’an, which repeatedly claims that it is a clear book. If we consider the verses often presented to prove that they refer to some scientific phenomena, recently been discovered, we will see that most of these claims are unfounded. It is naïve to think that a term or a word used in a book written in seventh century could be interpreted according to the present connotations of the word.
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