Qur'anic Taʿāruf as a Normative Proposal for Social Cohesion: A Five-Dimensional Reconstruction

This article examines verse ۱۳ of Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt and reconstructs a five-dimensional logic of Qur'anic taʿāruf as a normative proposal for addressing othering and social rupture. Employing an exegetical-conceptual method based on eight systematically coded commentaries (al-Ṭabarī, al-Zamakhsharī, al-Qurṭubī, al-Rāzī, Ibn Kathīr, Rashīd Riḍā, al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī, and Makārim Shīrāzī), supplemented by three hermeneutical sources (al-Ālūsī, Ibn ʿĀshūr, and Faḍl al-Raḥmān), the study demonstrates that taʿāruf (in the tafāʿul pattern) denotes mutual reciprocal knowing. The logic of taʿāruf is reconstructed as a five-dimensional model—ontological, sociological, teleological, axiological, and theological—in which human plurality is presented as a creational given and mutual recognition as an ethically directed relational orientation. The article compares this logic with contemporary theories of tolerance and recognition, explicitly acknowledging significant overlaps and not claiming superiority. Drawing on intergroup contact theory, the article proposes a revised two-stage heuristic—recognition and cooperation—in which the first stage is more directly grounded in Q. ۴۹:۱۳, while the second is a normatively inferred and socially adapted extension. The article argues that this framework offers a distinctive normative proposal, while acknowledging that empirical validation remains the task of future research and that the relationship between taʿāruf and distributive justice requires further theoretical integration.

کلیدواژه ها:

Qur'anic taʿāruf ، othering ، social cohesion ، mutual recognition ، intergroup contact theory