Reframing Qur’anic Hermeneutics Beyond the Text–Context Binary: A Dialogical Model for Contemporary Interpretation
Keywords:
Qur’anic hermeneutics, dialogical interpretation, text–context binary, tafsir tradition, ethical interpretationAbstract
Contemporary Qur’anic hermeneutics is often framed through a binary opposition between textualism and contextualism. While textualist approaches preserve linguistic discipline, exegetical continuity, and textual accountability, contextualist approaches foreground historical consciousness, ethical relevance, and contemporary applicability. This article argues that the text–context binary is insufficient for explaining the dynamic, mediated, and ethically situated formation of Qur’anic meaning. The study aims to formulate a dialogical model of Qur’anic interpretation that integrates textual, traditional, historical, readerly, and ethical horizons. Methodologically, it employs a qualitative conceptual-hermeneutical textual design based on close reading of selected Qur’anic verses, analysis of classical tafsir works, and critical engagement with contemporary Qur’anic hermeneutics and dialogical theories of meaning. The findings show that the Qur’anic text itself contains dialogical structures through direct address, semantic layering, intertextual coherence, and ethical orientation. The tafsir tradition also demonstrates interpretive plurality rather than a single closed meaning, while ethico-legal verses such as Q. 4:34 reveal the need for mediation among textual wording, historical context, exegetical tradition, and ethical normativity. The article proposes a five-horizon dialogical model as a structured alternative to both rigid literalism and unrestricted relativism. Its theoretical contribution lies in redefining dialogical interpretation not as a loose attitude of openness or compromise, but as an epistemic framework for contemporary Qur’anic hermeneutics. This model preserves textual accountability while enabling historically aware, tradition-conscious, readerly self-critical, and ethically responsible interpretation.
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