Abstract
Debates on Qur’anic hermeneutics often oppose acceptance to rejection, overlooking differences between studying an approach, allowing its use, and endorsing its conclusions. This article examines how four lecturers in Qur’anic sciences and exegesis at UIN Ar-Raniry formulate these distinctions and justify the limits they place on interpretation. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, the study analyses documented interviews from field research with purposively selected informants. Available quotations and summaries are organised thematically and interpreted through comparison across informants and dialogue with recent scholarship. The findings identify overlapping but distinct positions. MNA separates interpretive tools from their results; IU permits methodological enrichment while resisting exclusivity; M acknowledges conditional use but prefers thematic exegesis; and SAB prioritises inherited exegetical disciplines while leaving interpretive products open to evaluation. The article develops three analytical levels of acceptance: intellectual receptivity, procedural permission, and evaluative endorsement. Evidence is strongest for receptivity and stated conditions of use; evaluations of particular thinkers do not establish endorsement of complete exegetical works. The contribution lies in identifying how apparently similar conditions conceal different methodological preferences and grounds of authority. These levels concern objects of judgment rather than successive stages of adoption, offering a more precise account of the documented controversy.
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