In an interview with IQNA, Hojjat ul-Islam Mohammad Ali Rezaee Esfahani, head of Al-Mahdi Quran Research Center, highlighted Imam Khomeini’s influential role in political, religious and interpretive spheres.
He added that “Imam Khomeini has applied an eclectic approach in interpreting the Holy Quran including the Quran-to-Quran, narrative, rational, scientific, Ijtihad and particularly esoteric method which can be seen in his interpretation of Hamd Surah.”
“Among various interpretive methods, Imam was more inclined to employ mystical, philosophical, ethical and social approaches, as he has left traces of his political, Jihad and proximity tendencies in his interpretations.”
Elaborating on Imam Khomeini’s use of the Quran-to-Quran approach, Hojjat ul-Islam Rezaee added: “For instance, in his interpretation of the verses on ‘determinism’, he has referred to other verses that indicate an intermediate position (i.e. neither absolute determinism nor total free will). Another example is his interpretation of Hamd Surah - Surat al-Fatihah- using a verse from Surat al-Nur to conclude that all praises belong to God and are manifestations of His existence.”
He further referred to the narrative approach in Imam’s interpretation and brought examples in which he has interpreted certain verses based on Hadiths by the Prophet (PBUH) and Ahlul-Bayt (as).
“Imam Khomeini also made use of the rational approach based on the two logical methods in Islamic interpretation that has made his interpretation quite distinct from Ash’ari (a Sunni school of thought) exegeses that develop a rather limited view of reasoning in interpreting the Quranic verses,” Hojjat ul-Islam Rezaee went onto say.