Organized by researchers at proximity research center, the meeting on historical criticism and its impacts on the legal context of Qur’an was held at the Research Center of Fiq’h Studies in Iran’s holy city of Qom.

Mohammad Reza Peysepar, the director of the institute at Contemporary Fiq’h Research Center and speaker at the meeting related on the potential negative impacts of that on legal grounds of holy Qur’an, reported Taqrib News Agency (TNA).
 
The meeting on “Historical Criticism and Its Impacts on the Legal Context of the Qur’an” was held in collaboration with Contemporary Fiq’h Research Center and Bent-ul-Hoda School, affiliate with al-Mustafa International University.
 
The historical Criticism approach on studying Qur’an comprises analysis of the text from historical and scientific view which has been the topic in reading of the holy scriptures.
 
Although the approach provides valuable insights into the historical context of holy Qur’an, there remain concerns regarding its potential negative impacts on understanding the legal grounds of Qur’an. The reasons for that include 1- dispatch from traditional interpretation, 2- disregard for belief and inspiration and 3- undermining traditional interpretations.
 
The meeting related on a criticism of the religious criticism and shortcomings of the historical-criticism in studying Qur’an stressing that:

1. 1- Any research method leads to certain results; hence, is unable to consider all aspects of a topic as a thermal binocular can detect only heat signatures but does that mean the other beings do not exist?
   2- Restriction of data to understand historical context of Qur’an would bar an accurate understanding of the holy book.
   
   3- Several researchers have questioned the history of holy Qur’an being revealed during the 23 years of Prophet Mohammad’s (PBUH) prophecy. If true, that does not reject the verses and chapters existed at the time of Prophet of Islam.
   
   4- Scarcity of Qur’an manuscripts challenges interpretation of the holy book for many researchers. Unlike other holy texts, there are not many manuscripts of holy Qur’an that facilitate a comparison or tracing of its history.