Toward an integrated intratextual hermeneutical framework for qur’an-by-qur’an interpretation: a comparative analysis of al-zamakhsharī and izzat darwazeh

This article examines the methodological foundations of interpreting the Qur’an by the Qur’an (tafsīr al-Qur’ān bi’l-Qur’ān) through a comparative hermeneutical analysis of al-Zamakhsharī and Izzat Darwazeh. It focuses on how Qur’an-by-Qur’an interpretation functions across different exegetical paradigms and treats relations between Qur’anic passages as intratextual rather than intertextual because they operate within a single scriptural corpus. Using a qualitative comparative textual-hermeneutical approach, the study analyzes selected exegetical operations from al-Kashshāf and al-Tafsīr al-Ḥadīth across three dimensions: linguistic-semantic, rational-coherence, and historical-contextual interpretation. The findings show that al-Zamakhsharī predominantly constructs intratextual relations through linguistic, rhetorical, and rational-theological operations, whereas Darwazeh gives greater interpretive weight to chronological and historical-contextual relations. Despite these methodological differences, both approaches rely on the internal coherence of the Qur’anic text while assigning different functions and evidentiary weight to relations among passages. On this basis, the article proposes a provisional Integrated Intratextual Hermeneutical Framework (IIHF). Rather than imposing a fixed hierarchy, the framework treats the relative importance of its three dimensions as evidence-sensitive and dependent on the exegetical problem under examination. The IIHF is therefore presented as a comparative and testable analytical framework rather than a universal model of Qur’anic interpretation.