A Study on Muḥammad Hādī Maʿrifat’s Modern Shīʿa Tafsīr History Book al-Tafsīr wa-l-Mufassirūn

Abstract

Muḥammad Hādī Ma‘rifat (d. 2006) is one of the leading figures of the modern tafsīr literature. His work on the history of tafsīr is a seminal one. In this study, we aimed to introduce his work, al-Tafsīr wa-l-mufassirūn, with its different aspects and to reveal the S̲hīʿa’s perspective of the history of tafsīr, based on Muhammad Hādī. First, we read the aforementioned work and the studies on it. We examined the sources and other books that Muhammad Hādī frequently used. We found that, as noted by himself, Muhammad Hādī wrote his book entitled al-Tafsīr wa-l-mufassirūn to correct the inaccurate information and to overcome the deficiencies in the book entitled al-Tafsīr wa-l-mufassirūn by Muhammad Husayn Dhahabī (d. 1977) about Shīʿa tafsīrs and commentators. Therefore, we examined Muhammad Hādī’s work called al-Tafsīr wa-l-mufassirūn in comparison with Dhahabī’s work with the same title. We discovered that both Maʿrifat and Dhahabī introduced fifty-three prominent figures in the field of tafsīr and thirty-four tafsīr books, while Maʿrifat introduced an extra of one hundred and twelve prominent figures and fifty-two tafsīr books. We concluded that Muhammad Hādī presented many Ahl al-sunnah and Shīʿa tafsīrs from the perspective of Shīʿa, used a rich classification system when introducing the tafsīrs, extensively used the basic resources of Ahl al-sunnah and Shīʿa but failed to pay due attention to the promotion of some tafsīrs. We also found that, although Maʿrifat criticized Dhahabī on some issues, he benefited a lot from him while introducing many tafsīrs and commentators. Moreover, he based his loyalty on Ahl al-bayt and Ali b. Ebī Talib; he acted with sectarian concerns while introducing some tafsīr and commentators and did not act too biased on the issues he addressed. As a result, he produced a valuable research study. We concluded that the Maʿrifat’s work is beneficial for research on Persian and Shīʿa tafsīr studies and is a sourcebook that can pioneer various research studies and theses on the history of tafsīr. * This study was prepared using my master's thesis entitled Muhammad Husayn Dhahabi and Muhammed Hādī Marifat's Views of the Mufassirs and Tafsīr Books in Their Work Called al-Tafsīr wa-l-mufassirūn, which I completed in 2021 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Muammer Erbaş.