A Comparative Study of the Imamiyyah and Salafist (Takfiri Wahhabism) Perspectives on the Language of the Qur'an

The language of the Qur'an is one of the issues on which various opinions have been raised among thinkers. Some of the Views are as the following: symbolic language of the Quran, poetic language, mythology, allegory, common sense, general custom, and so on. The present study, using a comparative-analytic method, considers the Imamiyyah and Salafi Takfiri groups on this issue, discussing and reasons of these two groups. The common ground between these two groups is that both of them maintain that religious propositions are meaningful. The separating point is that Imamiyyah believe that language of the Quran is understandable by the common people, maintaining that Quran has some interiors that only the Imams can discern it. But on the other side, the Salafi holds that the reason has no role in understanding the Holy Quran and there is no interior meaning and only the literal meaning is valid. This view has some bad consequences such as similarity in the attributes of God with his creatures and his deficiency