Volume 17, Issue 1 (2026 2026)
JIM 2026, 17(1): 46-65 |
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Miri M, Shoeibi M. (2026). A Critical Analysis of al-Dhahabī’s Views in al-Tafsīr wa al-Mufassirūn on the Methodology of Mystical Quranic. JIM. 17(1), 46-65. doi:10.22034.17.1.3
URL: http://erfanmag.ir/article-1-1666-en.html
URL: http://erfanmag.ir/article-1-1666-en.html
University of Tehran
Abstract: (200 Views)
The methodology of mystical Quranic exegesis has long faced staunch critics—some motivated by opposition to the intellectual heritage of the ahl al-ma’rifa (people of gnosis), and others by unfamiliarity with the foundational principles of this interpretive tradition. Since Muḥammad Ḥusayn al-Dhahabī stands among the most prominent of these critics, a systematic examination of his views may help clarify the substantive dimensions of the issue. An overwhelming preponderance of lacunae over competencies in al-Dhahabī’s knowledge of Islamic mysticism—encompassing both its doctrines and the principles, foundations, and methods of mystical exegesis—rendered him confused in his analysis of mystical interpretations and unsuccessful in adjudicating their validity. Al-Dhahabī possessed no adequate conception of theoretical mysticism as a discipline; and despite acknowledging his limited familiarity with the discourse of the mystics, he treated the invalidity of the mystical doctrine of the unity of being as self-evident. Nor did he hold an accurate understanding of the definition and constitutive components of ta’wīl in its technical mystical sense. In several instances, his unfamiliarity with the discourse of the ahl al-ma’rifa led him to impute Bāṭinī tendencies to mystical exegeses; in others, he judged them to be in conflict with the revealed law—whereas the masters of gnosis explicitly and vigorously rejected Bāṭinism and consistently emphasized that both exegesis and ta’wīl of the Quran are conditional upon their alignment with the substantive content of the sharī’a and the avoidance of exegesis based on personal opinion. Al-Dhahabī was equally unacquainted with the mystical theory of the spirit of meaning and its constructive functions within mystical exegesis, just as he was unaware of the approach of the ahl al-ma’rifa in anagogical exegesis. The cumulative weight of these deficiencies consistently misled him in his critique of the methodology of mystical Quranic interpretation. The present study is organized according to a descriptive-documentary method, with the dual aim of defending the intrinsic legitimacy of a principled and criterion-governed mystical exegesis and of elucidating the shortcomings in al-Dhahabī’s treatment of this exegetical approach.
Keywords: Mystical Exegesis, Esoteric Interpretation, Spirit of Meaning, al-Tafsīr wa al-Mufassirūn, Anagogical Exegesis.
Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
عرفان
Received: 2024/08/30 | Accepted: 2025/07/28 | Published: 2026/04/18
Received: 2024/08/30 | Accepted: 2025/07/28 | Published: 2026/04/18
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