Legal and uṣūl-based exegesis investigates how rulings follow from verses. It attends to generality and specification, commands and prohibitions, unrestricted and qualified language, and the relationships between evidences. Comparison of juristic reasoning is part of this approach.
A legal disagreement need not involve disagreement over a word’s basic sense. Jurists may accept its lexical meaning but differ over how a hadith, qualification, or another verse affects the ruling.
For example, the interpreter of a general legal statement must ask whether another valid proof limits its application. A difference in legal outcome should not automatically be presented as a difference of Arabic vocabulary.