The Application of “Linguistic Indication” in Understanding and Interpreting the Holy Qur’an: Case Study of “The Issue of Muhkam and Mutashābih”

The issue of “Muhkam and Mutashābih” in the Holy Qur’an has been an ancient and wide-ranging issue in Quranic sciences and its interpretation. Recognition and analysis of this issue play a significant role in understanding and interpreting the Holy Qur’an, preventing the Qur’anic researcher from mistakes and self-misinterpretations. This article studies the issue based on the “linguistic indication” approach, which has recently been used in understanding and interpreting the Qur’an and Sunnah. It also compares its findings to the late Allameh Tabataba’i's views. According to this study, the elements of “verbal similarity,” “disputes in understanding” and “absence of context” are referred as significant reasons of the phenomenon “semantic similarity” in the framework of “linguistic indication”. In addition, the decisiveness of whole Qur’anic verses based on linguistic indication, relativity in resembling verses semantically, and the non-addressees’ need for learning by “Qur’anic scholars,” are important results of the research. Finally, this article leads to present a new interpretation of the verse Āl-e ‘Imrān: 7.