School of rational exegesis

The present chapter investigates the rational, i.e. hypothetical or personal opinion, school of Qur’anic exegesis, its evolution, its major approaches and sources. The present account also highlights the major schools that constitute all the non-mainstream exegetes such as the Shī^ci, the Ibāḍi, the Mu^ctazili, and the Sufi. This chapter is furnished with numerous informative examples to demonstrate why al-tafsīr bil-ra’i is allegorically based. Therefore, various Muslim schools of thought will be analysed in terms of Qur’anic exegesis and approaches to Qur’anic discourse. The present discussion explains why mainstream exegetes are sceptical about the school of rational Qur’anic exegesis, the criteria and charactersitics of rational exegesis, and why it is objectionable (madhmūm). This chapter also provides a detailed and explicated analysis of the theological and exegetical approaches of the various schools of rational exegesis. These schools include the Shī^ci, the Shī^ci sub-sects (the Ismā^cīli, the Zaidi, and the Ḥūthi), the Ibāḍi, the Sufi, and the modern school of Qur’anic exegesis which is sub-divided into (i) reform-based and (ii) inimitability-oriented, where the former is divided into socio-educational and socio-political, while the latter is divided into linguistic, phonetic, stylistic, and scientific which is also sub-divided into science-based and number-based.