Edep-Ahlak Türü Eserlerde Âyetlerin Ele Alınma Biçimi (Mâverdî’nin Edebü’d-Dünya ve’d-Dîn’i Özelinde)

Abstract

Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī Ibn Muḥammad al-Māwardī, born in Basra, was an eleventh-century Muslim jurist who lived during the reign of Abbasid Caliphate. He wrote one of his famous books, Kitab Adab al-Dunya w'al-Din (The Ethics of Religion and of this World) at a time when the domination of the Shia-Buyid Emirs over the Abbasid Caliphate began weakening. Though this is not considered to be a tafsir book, it draws our attention, since it contains valuable views and insights regarding the field of tafsir. This work deals with the topics of theoretical and practical akhlaq (moral values) in great systematic details. Nearly every topic in this work appears to have been supported through the verses of the Qur’ān. The main method of tafsir employed in this work is such that it interprets a verse of the Qur’ān with another verse or a hadith, while also taking into account interpretive views and comments of the Companions (al-Ashab), the Successors (al-Tabi’in), as well as those of the scholars following them. In addition to his own opinions on the subject, al-Māwardī demonstrates in this work how the Qur’ān and the Sunnah determine the general boundaries of the individual and social morality. According to him, it is the Qur’ān and the Hadith that define the fundamental virtues and values necessary for the ultimate success of individuals and the society both in this world and the hereafter. In his other works, such as Al-Nukat wa’l ‘Uyun, al-Māwardī generally adopts the methodology of narration in interpreting the verses of the Qur’an. In the present work, too, we find him employing the same method of narration but further to it his own substantial reflections. Therefore, this work is worth examining from the perspective of the tafsir methods, as it combines both of the two methods; that of narration (riwayah) and that of reflection (dirayah).