تفسیروتأویل کی بحث،علامہ زرکشیؒ کااجتہادی منہج

Discussion of Tafsīr wa Ta’wīl, Allāmah Zarkashī's Ijtihādī Methodology

Abstract

Al-Burhān fī ‘Ulūm al-Qur’ān  by Imām Zarkashī (d.794 A.H.) is the foremost trend setting book of the Qur’ānic Sciences. In this book, the eminent Shāfi‘ī jurist Imām Zarkashī not only delineates the 47 topics of Qur’anic Sciences along with their core doctrines but also introduces several topics for the first time in systematic manner. Likewise this book pioneers the discussion of Tafsīr and Ta’wīl as an independent subject for the first time. Prior to this, such discussions were dispersed across various prefaces of Qur’anic Commentaries. In this discussion Allāma Zarkashī not only articulated the philosophy of Tafsīr and Ta’wīl in a systematic manner but has also provided detailed discussions on other principles and fundamentals, which emphasizes the depth and significance of this discourse. This definitive discussion on Tafsīr and Ta’wīl has been organized by Allāma Zarkashī on a unique ijtihādī methodology, demonstrative of his scholarly distinctiveness. The contents of this discussion include the literal and terminological meanings of Tafsīr and Ta’wīl, their differences, sources and various aspects of Tafsīr, the essential sciences necessary for an exegete and numerous lexical discussions of the Qur’an. Allāma Zarkashī has also documented the diverse aspects of inference through these core linguistic principles, in Tafsīr al-Qur’an, elucidating them with exegetical examples. This seminal discussion, reflecting Imām Zarkashī’s diligent insight, serves as a primary source for Tafsīr discussions in subsequent literature of Qur'anic Sciences and Tafsīrī Principles.