Comparing Shatibī And Schleiermacher’s Methods Of Textual Interpretatİon

In his famous Al-Muvafaqat, the renowned Andalusian scholar Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi (1320-1388) investigates the purposes of Islamic law (al-maqasid al- and argues that two principles must be considered for a proper understanding of the importance of Arabic language in understanding the main sources, and the consideration of the contexts regarding the initial addressees of the Quran along with their reception of the scripture, for God only addresses the people within their own circumstances. Without these two critical principles, the authorial intentions, for Shatibi, cannot be grasped comprehensively.

The German Biblical scholar Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) emphasizes two aspects in approaching a text: grammatical and psychological explication. According to the grammatical aspect, the text in its entirety and the single sentences /words are constitutive of one another. One must therefore refer both to the whole and the parts. As for the psychological aspect, it is necessary to understand the authorial intention behind the composition of the text. Condering the contexts in which a text is written along with the biographical sketches of its writer is therefore necessary in textual interpretation.

in interpreting a scriptural text.