Ihtijāj in tafsīr Works

Abstract

Ihtijāj (‘the deduction of supporting arguments from tafsīr’) is, as it were, a hybrid product, the ancestral roots of which may be traced to various disciplines and genres. However, historians of ihtijāj have not yet taken into serious account works on exegesis in their studies, a strange oversight given that books on exegesis provided a fertile source for scholars writing on ihtijāj. This paper will, therefore, examine in some detail those aspects of tafsīr that are significant to ihtijāj. It will particularly look at works of exegesis which show clear interest in Qur'anic readings and interest in defending these readings. Owing to the sheer quantity of tafsīr literature, our examination will focus on five of the most important books in the field: al-Ṭabarī's Jāmiʿ al-bayān, al-Zamakhsharī's al-Kashshāf, al-Rāzī's al-Tafsīr al-kabīr, Abū Ḥayyān's al-Baḥr al-muḥīṭ and al-Samīn al-Ḥalabī's al-Durr al-maṣūn. We shall also briefly refer to other works in the field where necessary, but these five scholars, who each evolved independent approaches of interpretation and belonged to different schools of grammar, it will be found, give a clear and comprehensive picture of the contribution that Qur'anic exegesis has made to ihtijāj scholarship.