ABDÜLHAMÃŽD EL-FERHÃŽ VE EMİN AHSEN EL-ISLHÃŽ'NİN GELİŞTİRDİKLERİ KUR'AN TEFSİRİ METODOLOJİSİ

Abstract

Abd al-Hamid al-Farahi and his pupil Amin Ahsan al-Islahi are two significant figuresconcerning Qur'anic studies in the Indian subcontinent. Although Farahi did not write anycomplete commentary on the Qur'an, Islahi, who followed and developed his mentor'sprinciples of interpretation, did write a complete commentary which is called Tadabbur-iQur'an. This article tries to describe and analyse their methodology in the interpretation ofthe Qur'an and discusses the their general approaches to the Qur'anic surahs. Althoughthere are differences between these two exegetes, it must be said that the methodologythey developed is very original. Both treated the Qur'anic surahs as a coherent unit,therefore they grouped them into different subsections. They found a specific theme ineach section and subsection. Nonetheless, there is a one major theme in each surah andsurah groups which they called amud. More interestingly, they saw in the Qur'anic surahsnot only thematic but also structural unity. Despite the originality of their approach, it isimportant to note that there are some problems which wait to be solved.