From the viewpoint of Ayatollah Ma'refat, the sources of Qur'anic interpretation include the Qur'an, the tradition of the Fourteen Infallibles: rational reason and empirical science; And since each interpretive method is closely linked to his view of "sources of Qur'anic interpretation", his interpretive method may be termed as "comprehensive ijtihadic method", which includes "interpretation of the Qur'an through the Qur'an", "interpretation of the Qur'an through tradition", "interpretation of the Qur'an through reasoning" and "the interpretation of the Qur'an through empirical science".
Ayatollah Ma'refat considers interpretation of the Qur'an through the Qur'an as the best and most solid way of understanding the Qur'an. The role of the Fourteen Infallibles in interpreting the Qur'an is also seen as an instructive and guiding to the methods of interpretation. In his view, a systematic use of the source "reason" in interpretation is essential, and the spread of science and philosophy is one of the factors influencing understanding of the Qur'an.
According to Ayatollah Ma'refat, the interpretation of the Qur'an with mystical discovery and intuition is invalid; but if the mystical interpretations have the "evidence" aspect rather than the "reference", they can be accepted in terms of "association of ideas".
The Sahabian's interpretive viewpoints can be accepted with certain conditions. The Tabe'ian's interpretive viewpoints are only valid and reliable to some extent, and they are only useful for empowering the interpreter to infer the Qur'an. The interpretation of the Qur'an through viewpoints is also invalid because it is "imposing" a viewpoint on the Qur'an rather than the "interpretation of the Qur'an".
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