Asalamu Alikum Wa Rehamtullahi Wa Barakatuh!
I wanted to ask that is it alright for a Muslim to think and ponder over the verses of Quran and then derive his/her own conclusions too? I mean, I sometimes think of the verses and new and new interpretations pop up in my mind. I find verses fitting even to some of the situations around me. So this is a miracle of the Quran, right? But I want to know whether deriving our own interpretations is permissible or not? And please, I do read scholars’ tafsirs but also that Allah has given everyone the ability to think and comprehend and so besides the tafsirs, we sometimes come up with our own interpretations too. And these interpretations are not at all contradicting the interpretations of the scholars but only that they provide a new angle of looking at the verses and provide more different meanings.
Umm… I think I should give an example. In the Quran we find these verses:
16:5 And cattle He has created for you (men): from them ye derive warmth, and numerous benefits, and of their (meat) ye eat.
16:6 And ye have a sense of pride and beauty in them as ye drive them home in the evening, and as ye lead them forth to pasture in the morning.
16:7 And they carry your heavy loads to lands that ye could not (otherwise) reach except with souls distressed: for your Lord is indeed Most Kind, Most Merciful,
16:8 And (He has created) horses, mules, and donkeys, for you to ride and use for show; and He has created (other) things of which ye have no knowledge.
About these verses, one brother gave his own interpretation in some book’s review as
I then think about small boys on foot in Nigeria with thin sticks driving along herds of cows. Should not we humans be grateful to God jall jalaalu for allowing use of creatures much more powerful physically than us? Now I know that archaeologists can trace the domestication of these animals, and I know that if you know what you're doing, you can reproduce the training of animals. So you don't need God to explain livestock. But gratefulness to God is still what I think about when hearing these passages.
Now I know that there can be hundreds of different interpretations of the above verses and I too came up with one.
Though my interpretation is only related to some part of the verses but here it is:
I think that Allah has given the example of livestock and mentioned this ordinary narrative especially in Quran for some particular purpose. We know that Vedantists (Hindus) worship many gods and they even worship cows! So maybe Allah mentioned these verses to tell the people that it is not right for anyone to take animals as their god as these animals have only been created for our service… And why would the Hindus worship cow seeing that it is also one among those animals! It doesn’t make sense to raise some animals to such a high status despite the fact that it has the same qualities as the other animals! And they should realize that cow has its own purpose in life :D and its purpose is not to rule the world as god but to provide diary products, milk etc. Heehee! :D
So there is always a special purpose behind each and every verse of the Quran. So is it right to make such type of my own interpretations? This is not even contradicting any scholars’ tafsir but is just providing a different meaning.
Jazakamullahu Khair!
All praise is for ALLAH. :statisfie