Document Type : Original
Authors
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Faculty of Theology and Ahlul Bayt Studies, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Regional Studies, Faculty of International Studies, Imam Hossein University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
The fundamental problem of the present study is to investigate how Verse 45 of Al-Ma'idah is reflected in the Qur'an and the Islamic exegetical tradition in comparison with the Bible and Jewish and Christian commentaries. Employing a descriptive method, qualitative content analysis, and an intertextual approach, this article conducts a comparative examination of this verse and its parallel passages in the Bible, as well as in Islamic, Jewish, and Christian exegeses.
The findings indicate that Verses 43 to 45 of Al-Ma'idah, within a unified context, highlight instances of the Jews' defiance of divine ordinances. Islamic exegetes, primarily relying on narrations concerning the occasions of revelation and linguistic-jurisprudential analyses, have confined their explication to the instances of Verses 43 and 44, passing over the specific implication of Verse 45 without addressing it. However, an examination of Jewish interpretations—which substitute monetary compensation for physical retaliation—alongside Christian interpretations, which transfer the principle of retribution to the realm of personal ethics, clarifies that the Holy Qur'an introduced Verse 45 as a reaction to the ijtihad (independent juridical reasoning) of Jewish and Christian exegetes in the face of the explicit text of the Torah. In this regard, the Qur'an categorizes this verse as another instance of defiance against divine ordinances and their alteration. These findings demonstrate that the application of an intertextual approach can render the Qur'anic references to past religious traditions more substantiated and lucid, opening new hermeneutical horizons for exegetes in interpreting such verses—an approach that remains neglected within the Islamic exegetical tradition
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