%0 Journal Article %T Evaluating the Efficiency of Non-literally Interpreting the Quranic verses %J Philosophy of Religion %I University of Tehran %Z 2008-7063 %A Najafi, Roohollah %D 2016 %\ 12/21/2016 %V 13 %N 4 %P 681-696 %! Evaluating the Efficiency of Non-literally Interpreting the Quranic verses %K Interpretation of the Qur’an %K infallibility of the Qur’an %K the time of revelation %K non-literal meaning %K literal meaning %K Meaning %R 10.22059/jpht.2016.61122 %X When the literal meaning of the Qur’anic verses are incompatible with meta-qur’anic sources, the faithful reader of the Qur’an goes beyond the literal meaning to the non-literal one. The opposing ideas to the literal meaning of the verses come from the philosophical, historical or scientific sources. This paper, aside from explaining the nature and procedure of how the transition from the literlal meaning to the non-literal one works, discusses about the legitimacy or illegitimacy of this procedure. In addition, it is shown that the non-literal interpretation is not always and everywhere efficable and valid, and faces limitations and difficulties. The most important challenge of applying the non-literal interpretation is when this meaning is not actually meant by the author at the time of the Qur’anic revelation. In fact, the non-litral interpretation is based on the new scientific discoveries and at the time of revelation of the Qur’an, there was no reason to mean anything but what was literally meant. In addition, in discussions with disbelievers of the Qur’an, resorting to the non-literal interpretion is of no avail, for they don’t  regard the Qur’an as infallible – which was the reason to fo go beyond the literal interpretation of the Qur’an, in the first place. %U https://jpht.ut.ac.ir/article_61122_27f546b9a62a1a5c0bd7e0393599b88f.pdf