The Introduction To The Tafsir Al-Mizan Of Allamah Tabatabai 1/2

A‘udhu bi-Llahi al-Sami‘ al-‘Alim, min al-shaytan al-rajim, Bismillah, Al-Rahman Al-Rahim, wa salla-Llahu ‘alaa sayyidina Muhammad wa ‘ala aalihi-t-tayyibin at-taahirin.

So before we get into the tafsir [exegesis] proper, it is important for us to go through the introduction to 'Tafsir al-Mizan' written by ‘Allamah Tabataba'i, in order to understand his method. And usually we might skip the introduction out of eagerness to get to the real meat of the book, but especially when it comes to academic works, it is important to pay good attention to the introduction because within it what we will find is a summarization of ‘Allamah Tabataba'i's method, and how his method is different to previous attempts at explaining and elucidating the meanings of the Holy Qur'an.

So for this video, we are going to look at one of the things that 'Allamah Tabataba'i discusses within his introduction, which is comprised of a historical background where ‘Allamah Tabataba'i explains the way the science of tafsir had developed. And within that development of the science, he explains the methods or the approaches which are used by different interpreters of the Holy Qur'an.

So since the time of the revelation of the Holy Qur'an, the Qur'an has needed interpretation and has needed explanation and for that reason, the first interpreter of the Holy Qur'an was the Holy Prophet, Salla-Llaahu 'alayhi wa aalihi wa sallam.

And after the demise of the Holy Prophet, Salla-Llaahu 'alayhi wa aalihi wa sallam, the interpretation of the Holy Qur'an split into two main camps. The first was the camp of the family of the Prophet, or the Ahlul Bayt, alayhum afdhal as-Salat wa as-salam. And the second was the companions, here meaning the companions outside of the Ahlul Bayt.

And as you will remember from the Hadith of Thaqalayn, where the Holy Prophet, Salla-Llaahu 'alayhi wa aalihi wa sallam, leaves behind two weighty things the book of Allah and his family. The role of the interpretation of the Holy Qur'an by the Ahlul Bayt became something political, because when we talk about the interpretation of the Holy Qur'an, we talk about the understanding of Islam itself. There is nothing in Islam that is outside of the Holy Qur'an, that is outside the revelation from Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, and outside the prophetic practice of the Holy Prophet, Salla-Llaahu 'alayhi wa aalihi wa sallam.

So the question here was who owned that interpretation? Who do we take that interpretation from? And the Muslim Ummah split into two camps. The first camp holding onto the Hadith of Thaqalayn, took the understandings from the family of the Holy Prophet, Salla-Laahu 'alayhi wa aalihi wa sallam, and the second camp followed the interpretations of the Companions.

Now, at this stage, the interpretations of the Companions were primarily concerned with issues of Arabic language, and certain narrations from the Holy Prophet, Salla-Laahu 'alayhi wa aalihi wa sallam. And then after the demise of the Companions came the role of the Successors or the Taa'bi'in, and they more or less continued narrating the interpretations of the Companions.

But it is at this point that a certain group of riwaayaat [narrations] called 'Israa'iliyyat' entered into the Hadith Corpus. Israa'iliyyaat comprised of narrations from the People of the Book - from the Jews and the Christians because these Successors interpreted the verse: "fa s'alu ahl adh-dhikr" (16:43 & 21:07)- 'Ask the people of remembrance' to be the Jews and the Christians.

And as such, when there were gaps in the narrative of the Holy Qur'an, when it came to the stories of the Prophets, they decided to ask the Christians and the Jews about what was contained in their scripture and they brought those narrations into the tafsir of the Holy Qur'an.

And that was quite unfortunate because there were many things which were attributed to the Prophets in the Bible and in the Tawrah that were against the vision of the Prophets presented by Islam in the Holy Qur'an. And so over time, the Israa'iliyyaat were challenged, and purged from the books of tafsir.

Now, after the Successors came the third wave of tafsir and in this wave of tafsir, because of the development of the sciences in the Muslim Ummah, each group of commentators on the Qur'an commented on the Qur'an using their own framework.

So in this stage, a number of methods were presented. The first method was the method of the Ahl al-Hadith. Now the Ahl al-Hadith had two characteristics. The first is that they were primarily concerned with narration they considered that those people that were closer to the time of revelation had a more privileged access to the interpretation of the Holy Qur'an. And the second aspect is that they focused on the apparent meaning of the Holy Qur'an.

And 'Allamah Tabataba'i takes issue with both of these aspects of the Hadith. He criticizes narrating from the Companions and even goes as far as to say that no Muslim needs their opinions. And furthermore, 'Allamah Tabataba'i invokes the Qur'anic recommendation to think about the verses of the Holy Qur'an, and therefore shows that there is no mandate for ignoring reflection, and simply relying on what the previous generations have said about the Holy Qur'an, and he also takes issue with the reliance on the apparent meaning, and we will discuss that in the next video on 'Allamah Tabataba'i 's theory on language.

Now, at the same time, another trend of tafsir which entered into the third stage of the development of tafsir, was theological tafsirs. And the Muslim Ummah, aside from the Imaamiyyah, was split into two camps: the Ash'aris and the Mu'tazilis, and both of them had intellectual frameworks with which they understood the Holy Qur'an.

While the Mu'tazilis were Rationalists, the Ash'aris stipulated the primacy of the scriptural literature, but again, they focused on the apparent meanings and that many times led them to problems in interpretation.

So, for example, when it came to verses that spoke about attributes of Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala that were close to human attributes, for example, Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala having a hand, or a face, or the ability for human beings to see Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala on the Day of Judgment, the Ash'aris would confirm the outward of the statement saying: Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala has a hand. And He has a face, and we will be able to see Him on the Day of Judgment, but we do not know how any of this is going to take place.

Whereas both the Mu'tazila and Imaamiyyah, meaning the Shi'ah, understood these expressions to be allegorical. And it is eventually the Ash'ari school of thought that dominated the Islamic world but both of these groups of scholars use their frameworks to interpret the Holy Qur'an.

The next group were the philosophers. Here we primarily talking about Peripatetic philosophy in the early history of Islam, and again, they would use their framework and their ontological assumptions to try and explain the verses of the Holy Qur'an.

And one of the most problematic issues was the interpretation of the Holy Qur'an, as propounded by the Peripatetics, was that they opined that all of the verses pertaining to the hereafter were all allegorical, as in their view, there was no meaning to any type of body in the Hereafter, and so therefore no meaning to any kind of bodily pleasures and of course, they came under fire, especially from the theologians.

But philosophical tafsir in the Shi'i milieu developed past Peripatetic philosophy because in the Shi'i world two other styles of philosophy developed. The first is Illuminist philosophy, and the second is Transcendental philosophy. And in later years, especially Transcendental philosophy has been used in the explanation of the Holy Qur'an.

The next group 'Allamah Tabataba'i speaks about is the Sufis. And his criticism of the Sufis is that the Sufis relied on the inner meanings of the Holy Qur'an, and sometimes they focus on the inner meanings were such that they ignored the apparent meaning of the Holy Qur'an. So this is the opposite problem to the Ahl al-Hadith. Their desire for the inner pulled them too far away from the actual apparent of what was being said in the Holy Qur'an.

And finally, the final trend in tafsir that 'Allamah Tabataba'i addresses is a modern tendency to interpret the Holy Qur'an according to scientific paradigms. And this was something that modernist thinkers tried to do in order to show that Islam was not against science, and through that show that Islam was able to deal with modernity. And the problem with these interpretations was that they would reject anything that did not seem to be scientific, specifically the miracles of the prophets and so they would look for an alternative meaning for those miracles.

Finally, the last trend in tafsir is a focus on the Arabic language in terms of its grammar and its syntax, its rhetoric and the meaning of the words, and of course, all of the trends in tafsir rely on the literary exegesis of the Holy Quran. So aside from the literary exegesis, 'Allamah Tabataba'i criticises all of the other trends, as he considers them to have imposed their frameworks, and imposed their ideas on the verses of the Holy Qur'an, rather than allowing the Holy Qur'an to speak for itself.

And he argues against their method saying that the Holy Qur'an is a clear book. The Holy Qur'an has described itself as clear, and is recognized as a standard in Arabic literature. And one of the facets of Arabic literature is that the meanings of the words must be clear, and the depth of meaning in what is being said should not compromise that clarity.

This is what it means to have a high literary standard, that the construction of the words and the use of the words is such that they are beautiful when they are put together, they are clearly understood and they contain a wealth of meaning in different levels. So 'Allamah Tabataba'i criticizes these methods, saying that there is no need to impose any external framework on the Holy Qur'an. Rather, what a person should do is they should put aside their own presuppositions and their own frameworks and pay attention to what the Holy Qur'an itself is trying to say.

And then he continues to explain that the problem that people face is not in the literary aspect of the Holy Qur'an. The Holy Qur'an is clear, but rather what has confused some of the interpreters are the reference that the verses of the Holy Qur'an indicate to you, and inshaAllah we are going to speak more about that in our next video in which we speak about the theory of language that 'Allamah Tabataba'i uses in his tafsir.

Wa salla-Llahu 'alaa Sayyidina Muhammad, wa 'ala aalihi, at-tayyibin, at-tahirin.