The Meaning of ‘Juxtaposing the Qur’an with the Qur’an’ in the Traditions and its Relationship with Exegesis Based on Subjective Opinion in the View of the Two Schools of Thought

Juxtaposing the Qur’an” and “Subjective Exegesis” are two terms that can be found in the Shiʿi and Sunni traditions in various contexts. An in-depth study of the connotations of these traditions reveals the link between these two terms. Both Shiʿi and Sunni scholars opine that subjective exegesis and juxtaposition of the Qur’an have a common purpose and shared origin, yet in practical terms, juxtaposing the Qur’an is one type of exegesis which runs contrary to affirming the Qur’an with the Qur’an and the correct method of interpreting the Qur’an through the Qur’an. Hence, the relationship of this kind of exegesis to subjective exegesis is such that the former falls within the domain of the latter. In reality, one of the erroneous exegetical methods that lead to and fall under the rubric of subjective exegesis is the Juxtaposition of the Qur’an with the Qur’an.
The traditions that speak about juxtaposing the Qur’an, found in both Shiʿi and Sunni sources, have both strong and weak chains of narrators. Due to the large number of traditions with sound chains, both schools of thought have come to consider it as authentic. The connotation of juxtaposing the Qur’an is studied and analyzed less in Sunni sources and they mostly suffice with mentioning the narrations themselves. However, in Shiʿi sources, aside from the narrations, there has been special consideration and analysis of the narrations that speak about this form of exegesis.