The Hermeneutical Extensions of the Debate on al-Kalām al-Nafsī in the Context of Revelation, Inner Speech/Verbum Interius and Interpretation

The Hermeneutical Extensions of the Debate on al-Kalām al-Nafsī in the Context of Revelation, Inner Speech/Verbum Interius and Interpretation Al-kalām al-nafsī is the defining concept for the Ash？arite-Māturīdite school of thought in the controversy over the creation of the Qur’an (khalq al-Qur？ān). As such, it is related to both the conditions of the revelation and hermeneutics of the Qur’an. The notion that the Word consists of the meaning in the nafs (intellect) rather than that of sounds and letters, seems to profoundly shape the quality and directness/indirectness of the signification of Qur’an’s words. If we consider that the Christian concept of verbum interius -developed for similar purposes to that of al-kalām al-nafsī- has been recently interpreted by Hans-Georg Gadamer in the context of the universality of hermeneutical problem, we may surmise that similar or different hermeneutical repercussions might also be traced for the latter term. Among these are the linguicity of understanding, the role of interpretation in understanding, and subjectivity. In this essay I compare the concept of al-kalām al-nafsī and verbum interius in terms of their most definitive features, and elaborate on the former’s hermeneutical repercussion