God has communicated with human beings at certain periods of history.
The verses of the Qur’an are the concretization of this communication
through revelation to its addressee. Therefore, the most accurate
understanding of the Qur’anic verses increases as we get closer to the
time of revelation. This brings up the importance of the Knowledge Basis
of the first addressees of the Qur’an in understanding the verses. It
is known that most of the issues such as the lifestyles, understandings,
experiences, stories they heard or told, etc. of the first addressees were
the environment on which the revelation was revealed and the examples
were selected. In this environment, the knowledge of the addressee
is sometimes confirmed, sometimes the issues that he knows incorrectly
are corrected or reminded of different versions, and sometimes new
entries are made in matters of which he has very limited knowledge.
This role of the addressee in the transmission of revelation makes it
necessary to investigate the knowledge that constitutes the dynamics of
their understanding. The knowledge basis of the Qur’anic verses should
be investigated and discussed, and the closest meaning of the verses
should be determined. In this respect, the concept of “Knowledge Basis”
shows the method of how Qur’anic verses should be studied.
The applicability of the method proposal was studied through an example
in our study. The example of Companions of Sabbath was chosen
to determine the applicability of the method. There are not many details
in the narrations about the story. For example, information about
the city where the event took place or the date of its occurrence is not
clear. For this reason, most of the studies written by researchers on
the subject have deficiencies since they are only narration-based. The
knowledge basis theory provided the opportunity to give the example a
meaning closer to the purpose for which it was revealed. In this study,
the verses were analyzed in detail, the words, concepts, contexts of the
verses, reasons of revelation, and most importantly, all the knowledge
basis within the theory were investigated and discussed.
Keywords: The Qur’an; Tafsīr; Knowledge Base; First Audience; Aṣḥāb
al-Sabt; Sabbath; Himyarites; Aksum; Ḥītān