Averroes and the Recourse to Quranic Verses

Abstract

The article considers how Averroes makes use of Quranic verses in his works and classifies them into different categories. His theological treatise, that can be translated as Disclosure of the Proof Methods Concerning the Principles of Religion, based on Quranic verses, belongs to the first category. Averroes middle commentary on the Aristotelian Rhetoric belongs to the second, in which the Qur’an is quoted as a literary paradigm. In the third category we find his ‘Definitive Treatise’, written in the form of a fatwā or legal response. His philosophical works belong to the last category, in which Averroes makes use of Quranic verses to buttress his interpretation of Aristotle.