This is a lexicon entry that gathers the terminological meaning of this term in Shahrur’s thought across his various books, and connects its multiple uses.
This entry belongs to the Shahrurian lexicon, and is connected to Shahrur’s reading of the difference between the Qur’anic text and the sciences that arose around it, such as tafsir and ta’wil.
The meaning according to Shahrur
Qur’anic sciences are the body of knowledge that historically emerged around the Qur’an due to scholarly necessity and civilizational contact, but in Shahrur’s view they did not remain a clearly bounded independent discipline, as they expanded and became intertwined with tafsir until the traditional exegetical reading came to dominate them.
Distinctions
- They differ from the Qur’an itself; they are historical knowledge about it, not the text itself
- They are not equivalent to tafsir, because they are the broader framework that is supposed to study the Qur’an, not dissolve into it.
- Here they are not understood as a complete, fixed structure, but as a traditional classification that has undergone expansion and conflation.
Passages from his books
- Umm al-Kitab and Its Elaboration: Qur’anic sciences are portrayed here as a historical product that emerged through civilizational contact and the need for knowledge. But in Shahrur’s view they expanded and became mixed with tafsir, losing their methodological independence
What accompanies it and what differs from it
- the Qur’an
- Qur’an concept center
- tafsir
- ta’wil
- The contemporary reading requires a new interpretive method that goes beyond traditional tafsir
- The expansion of the traditional classification
- Traditional Qur’anic sciences historically emerged and then became mixed under the dominance of tafsir
- The historical emergence of Qur’anic sciences
- The dominance of the science of tafsir
- Shahrur - the Qur’an