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Abstract
Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s article asserts that the modus operandi or default principle when interpreting the Qur’anic text is to understand it according to its exoteric form and in reference to its primary meaning. His article contends that ta’wīl (hermeneutical interpretation) of texts detracts from the real meaning to a symbolic or allegorical meaning. Therefore, there should not be any ta’wīl unless there is a valid reason and evidence for it. Al-Qaradawi explains the concern of scholars in establishing rules and controls for ta’wīl, and he addresses the areas of ta’wīl in the thought of al-Shawkānī and al-Zarkashī, and the rules and bases of ta’wīl in the thought of Ibn Ḥazm and Ibn Ḥanbal. He also discusses paradigms in esoteric ta’wīl, al-Zanādiqah, certain Shiʿah sects, extremist Sufis, how rational schools of thought exaggerated in the use of ta’wīl (including the philosophical school of thought), kalām (theological) factions, al-Jābriyyah (Compulsionists), al-Qādiāniyyah, Baha’is, and misinterpretation of verses on ḥudūd (penal rulings) by some contemporary interpreters.
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