I found myself filled with questions while reading the texts dealing with Qur’anic exegesis. I understand that some scholars would state that “every verse can be understood in sixty thousand ways”, and while I know this isn’t the opinion of all Muslim scholars, I’m struggling to understand how that fits with Muhammad’s statement that “Whoever interprets the Qur’an according to his own opinion will have his place in Gehenna.”
As an approach to understanding these two inimically opposed statements, I appreciated Ghazali’s four-rooted approach (1. Book of God, 2. the custom of the Prophet, 3. consensus of the Muslim community, 4. the traditions concerning the Companions of the Prophet). However, with this approach, making concessions for the “completions” as he calls them, I’m still confused a bit about how one can know if God granted someone an understanding of the Qur’an or not. If that individual satisfies that which was presented by Ghazali, can that person be trusted to have been granted understanding by God of the Qur’an?
Additionally, I’m wondering if implicitly, there is a relationship between Qur’anic exegesis and the Christian understanding of mystery. In the Christian tradition, the Church has been enriched by a clarified teaching that was, at times, prompted by heresy. Does the Qur’anic exegetical community believe that a pattern such would be possible/beneficial?
Islam & Christian-Muslim Relations, Hamaty 
Hi Andrew! I too am interested in learning more about Qur’anic exegesis. Here’s my attempt to resolve the conflict of your opening paragraph: Perhaps verses are polyvalent, but that doesn’t necessarily provide license to individual opinions. There may be 60,000 ways to interpret a given verse, but they must all be warranted by the traditions.
–Stephanie
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