Mechanisms of Interpretation and Semantic Control in Classical Arabic Discourse: A Linguistic-Semantic Study

This article explores semantic thinking among Muslim Quranic exegetes, highlighting how this semantic awareness emerged from the need to understand the Holy Quran, which led to the development of the science of Tafsir (exegesis), intertwined with linguistics, rhetoric, and logic.The article examines the influence of the asbab al-nuzul (occasions of revelation) in determining meaning and contextual time and place.It also discusses the role of abrogation (al-nasikh wa al-mansukh) in shaping legislative meaning.A distinction is made between muhkam (clear) and mutashabih (ambiguous) verses as two mechanisms for assessing the clarity or obscurity of meaning.The article emphasizes the importance of context-both verbal and situational in uncovering Quranic meanings, in addition to analyzing semantic linguistic phenomena such as: synonymy, polysemy, antonymy, and opposition.It further illustrates how nouns in the Quran carry greater potential for semantic interpretation than verbs, as exemplified in the word -kalalah.The article also presents examples of exegetical disagreements resulting from variations in readings, syntax, and linguistic interpretation.The article concludes that the efforts of the exegetes constitute an early foundation for modern semantic analysis, and that understanding the Quranic meaning can only be achieved through the integration of context, language, indicators, and jurisprudential grounding.