A Methodological Approach to the Narratives Regarding the Quran to Quran Commentary

One of Ahl al-Bayt’s methods of interpretation is the intratextual interpretation or the Qur’an to Qur’an commentary. This method which is based on the interaction and dialogue between the Qur’anic verses, is reflected, to a huge extent, in those narratives of Ahl al-Bayt regarding Qur’anic interpretation. The investigation of these narratives, not only leads to the derivation of Ahl al-Bayt’s methods of interpretation, but also provides the possibility of applying those methods throughout the Qur’an and leads us a step forward in the methodology of Qur’anic interpretation. Thus, in this article, with regard to the survived legacy of scholars of interpretation as well as to the scientific findings of the linguists, we attempt to conduct a methodological analysis of Ahl al-Bayt’s narratives about Qur’an to Qur’an commentary. Some of Ahl al-Bayt’s principal methods of interpretation represented in these narratives consist of: paying attention to the collocation relations, paying attention to the analogous verses, forming hypothetical analogies, paying attention to the semantic range of the Qur’anic vocabulary and phrases, intertextual interpretation, paying attention to the extensive encyclopedic information, and giving information about the historical events regarding the revealed verses and their interactions.