RECONSTRUCTING THE CONCEPT OF ASBĀB AL-NUZŪL: A CONTEXTUAL APPROACH AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR CONTEMPORARY QUR'ANIC INTERPRETATION

Abstract

The classical discipline of asbāb al-nuzūl has long served as the historical anchor of Qur'anic exegesis, yet its methodological status remains contested between a particularist reading bound to the specific occasion of revelation (khuṣūṣ al-sabab) and a universalist reading that privileges the generality of the wording ('umūm al-lafẓ). This article reconstructs asbāb al-nuzūl as an integrated contextual-semantic framework capable of mediating historicity and normativity in contemporary Qur'anic interpretation. Employing a qualitative, library-based Research and Development (R&D) design adapted for conceptual-model development, the study analyzes a corpus of recent classical and contemporary scholarship on asbāb al-nuzūl through four stages: define, design, develop, and disseminate. The findings map existing scholarship into four thematic clusters reaffirmation studies, epistemological critique, applied case studies, and cross-disciplinary comparison and propose a four-layer contextual-semantic model comprising the Qur'anic text, its historical-sociological setting, its semantic-ethical horizon, and its contemporary application. The model demonstrates that asbāb al-nuzūl, when reconstructed contextually rather than treated as a closed historical footnote, offers interpreters a disciplined method for deriving trans-historical ethical-legal principles from historically particular revelations. The article concludes that this reconstruction carries significant implications for contemporary legal reform, gender justice, interreligious relations, and the countering of decontextualized literalism in Qur'anic interpretation.