Communicating Diversity: A Quranic Discourse Analysis of Interreligious Engagement and Theological Pluralism

Abstract

he present study is an analysis of the textual and communicative strategies of the Qur’an in relation to religious pluralism and interreligious dialog. Contemporary conversations about religious diversity tend to swing between a hard exclusivism that interprets any and all Qur’anic references to the religious “Other” thru the prism of the so-called verses of the sword (āyāt al-sayf), and a secular relativism that erases all theological difference. Neither extreme does justice to the communicative architecture of the Qur’an itself. This paper adopts a qualitative research design that incorporates Tafsīr-based hermeneutics and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine a purposively chosen corpus of Meccan and Medinan verses to explore the construction, addressing and negotiation of religious alterity in Qur’anic discourse. The analysis identifies four main communicative registers Al-Jidāl al-Aḥsan (reasoned, courteous argumentation), the inclusive scriptural address to Ahl al-Kitāb, the universalist salvific address, and the civic-justice register of al-Qisṭ wa al-Birr and situates each within its occasion of revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl) to provide an account for its relation to more confrontational, martially framed verses rather than merely setting the latter aside. The findings suggest that Qur’anic discourse does not erase theological difference nor does it endorse indiscriminate coercion but rather develops a register-sensitive communicative methodology that dissociates doctrinal disagreement from social hostility, defers ultimate theological judgment to the Eschaton, and channels difference into moral competition (al-istibāq fī al-khayrāt). Finally, the article converts this communicative model into concrete recommendations for interfaith pedagogy, constitutional governance in Muslim-majority states, and dialog methodology. It claims that the Qur’an offers not only a doctrine of tolerance, but also a textually grounded discourse ethics of pluralism.