The beauty of the Quran is revealed according to the age of each generation and time.
Author: Dr. Farid Yunus, Professor of Middle Eastern Cultural Anthropology and Islamic Philosophy, Founder and Navigator of Islamic Democracy (California, USA), Member of the Advisory Board of Sangar
Respected Brother Hashmatullah Bayan from Kabul asked the following question: “You wrote that the Holy Quran has tafsir and ta'wil (interpretation and commentary). What does this mean? As far as I understand, the interpretation of the Holy Quran is done by its mufassirs (commentators) or the Holy Quran interprets one verse by another verse.”
The first mufassir (interpreter) of the Holy Quran was the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). After him, Hazrat Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said after the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that “Alquran yafsuro azzamaan”, that is, the Quran is interpreted by the time in which we live. Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), who was the third interpreter, was killed for the same reason, at least that was one of the reasons for his murder.
For example, slavery is mentioned in the Quran, but this is not the era of slavery. Is the verse “Asthghfurillah” unimportant and no longer meaningful? The interpretation of slavery in today’s world is that people have become slaves of capitalists, or they have become slaves of machines, slaves of bank interest.
Respected scholars have said that ikhtilaf ulahkam bil ikhtilaf uz zaman, that is, ahkam—the decisions differ according to the conditions of the time.
One of the methods of interpreting the Quran is to interpret the Quran according to the Quran, but this is one of the methods. The Quran is also interpreted based on historical science. The Quran is interpreted based on the era's requirements, which we discussed above. The Quran is interpreted based on modern science.
For example, “alqa” does not mean “closed blood” or “dead blood”. In the past, there was no research on the science of embryology. “Alqa” is one of the stages of sperm development in the womb. All translators of the Holy Quran translated it as “dead body”, which is unlikely to be true. “Alqa” comes from the word “alq”, which means a body attached to something.
The Quran is interpreted according to reliable hadiths, such as the verse “Wazrubahun”, which in the past meant “to hit a woman”. According to the hadith, the interpretation is that women should not be hit, as in the period of Jahiliya (ignorance).
The beauty of the Quran is revealed according to the age of each generation and time. Commentators and researchers who are familiar with the science of research and who can interpret the Quran from the point of view of etymology or lexicology should interpret and interpret the Quran.
Today, the mufassir (exegete) should use all the sciences so that the true meaning of the verse is revealed through research, and not that we accept an interpretation that has not been revised for a thousand years.
For example, from the point of view of botany, many errors can be seen in past interpretations. For example, the word “beans” is translated as “vegetable,” whereas “beans” is something else, and “vegetables” is another plant. Today, as a result of space research, it has been revealed that the theory of the Big Bang has been found in Surah Dukhan.
One of the reasons for the backwardness of Muslims in the last six hundred years was that we do not have a scientific vision based on today's science, psychology and sociology, and we cannot live a scientific life, although the Quran says: "Wa inallahi qad ihat bi kulli shay'i ulamo" - God has a scientific reason for everything.
