From Textual Authority to Contextual Reasoning: The Epistemology of Qur’anic Legal Interpretation in Classical and Modern Tafsīr

Wafiq Mayada; Silfiani Silfiani; Khairunnisa Khairunnisa; Destia Azzahra

Authors

Wafiq Mayada Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta
Silfiani Silfiani Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta
Khairunnisa Khairunnisa Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta
Destia Azzahra Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara

Keywords:

qur’anic legal interpretation, tafsir, islamic epistemology, maqāṣid al-sharīʿah, legal hermeneutics

Abstract

Qur’anic legal interpretation has long served as a central site for negotiating the relationship between revelation, legal normativity, ethical reasoning, and social order. Yet existing studies often focus on legal conclusions, exegetical trends, or reformist debates without sufficiently examining the epistemological structures through which Qur’anic legal meaning is constructed and authorised. This article investigates the epistemology of Qur’anic legal interpretation in classical and modern tafsīr traditions, with particular attention to the sources of knowledge, modes of reasoning, criteria of validity, and forms of interpretive authority that shape legal meaning. Employing a qualitative textual-comparative method, the study analyses selected Qur’anic legal verses, including QS. al-Nisāʾ [4]: 3, QS. al-Nisāʾ [4]: 11–12, QS. al-Baqarah [2]: 178, QS. al-Māʾidah [5]: 38, and QS. al-Nūr [24]: 2, alongside representative classical and modern exegetical works. The findings show that classical tafsīr constructs legal meaning through a hierarchical epistemology grounded in textual authority, transmitted reports, linguistic discipline, juristic precedent, and scholarly consensus. Modern contextualist and maqāṣid-oriented approaches, by contrast, reconfigure this hierarchy by giving greater emphasis to socio-historical context, ethical coherence, public welfare, human dignity, and contemporary relevance. The article argues that the relationship between classical and modern tafsīr is best understood not as a total rupture, but as epistemic continuity with hierarchical transformation. Its theoretical contribution lies in offering an epistemological model for analysing Qur’anic legal interpretation as a dynamic practice through which revelation, language, law, ethics, context, and authority interact.

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