ABSTRACT
This book is an in-depth empirical comparative-contrastive account of the various and theologically distinct schools of Qur’anic exegesis. It embarks upon a historical and methodological investigation of the development of Islamic hermeneutics and provides a holistic account of these various schools of exegesis. This work aims to provide a detailed explicated account of the exegetical techniques adopted by different exegetes of the formative, recording, and modern phases of the evolution of Qur’anic exegesis. This has been achieved through a comprehensive practical exegetical analysis of the major tafsir works by prominent exegetes representative of different historical phases, different schools of thought, different methodologies, and genres. However, the book is not concerned with the discussion of the historicity of these tafsir works. Their historical investigation lies outside the purview of the present work. It is a trans-disciplinary comparative-contrastive methodology through which the divergent political and dogma-driven exegetical schools and techniques are explicated to the reader. Being an empirical-based approach, the book is furnished with copious examples explicating the Qur’anic notions and the points of view relevant to each school and exegetical approach. For our comparative-contrastive exegetical analysis, we have selected nine samples from the Qur’ān which, we believe, are representative samples of the divergent exegetical and theological views of the mainstream and non-mainstream exegetes. These Qur’anic passages are well selected in order to mirror the major objective of this work. The Qur’anic samples are: sūrat al-baqarah (Q2:102), sūrat al-baqarah (Q2:213–216), sūrat āl cimrān (Q3:27–41), sūrat alancām (Q6:1–39), sūrat al-isrā’ (Q17:70–80), sūrat al-ḥajj (Q22), sūrat al-nūr (Q24:1–25), sūrat al-qamar (Q54), and sūrat al-ḥāqqah (Q69).
