ABSTRACT
As a field, Qur'anic studies must inevitably encompass issues that arise from the interpretive encounter with texts, i.e., hermeneutical issues. In its traditional signification hermeneutics connotes that activity that identifies the principles and procedures requisite to the interpretation of texts. It provides the methodological propaedeutic to the explication or exegesis of texts. Within the Islamic tradition the pre-eminent text is, of course, the Qur'an. For Muslims, it is God's full and final revelation to his Prophet Mul).ammad. As such, and in common with other texts deemed revelatory by their respective communities, the Qur'an has presented its potential interpreter with certain hermeneutical boundaries. With God as the direct author of the scripture, discussions of cultural borrowing or authorial development are pre-empted. Lexical and grammatical analysis have proceeded within the assumption of the divinely-wrought perfection of the text. Matters of canonical formation and structure became theological postulates during the very first centuries of the community's growth. Moreover, within that canon itself are to be found certain selfreflective statements that must necessarily guide the exegete in the elaboration of his exegetical approach. The Qur'an, in other words, makes reference to itself, characterizes itself in various ways, and defines (in at least a preliminary way) what might be termed the exegetical relationship that coheres between God, the Prophet and the faithful. These reflexive characterizations were of central importance in charting the development of a specifically Qur'anic hermeneutics. In commenting upon them, individual exegetes revealed the systemic perspectives of their exegetical methodologies.
