The Preponderances (Tarjīḥāt) of Imām Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbī in His Tafsīr "al-Tashīl li-ʿUlūm al-Tanzīl": A Study and Appraisal
A thesis for which the author was awarded the doctoral degree (al-ʿĀlamiyya) in Tafsīr and Qurʾanic Sciences — al-Azhar University
al-Azhar University — Faculty of Uṣūl al-Dīn and Islamic Daʿwah, Tanta (Dept. of Tafsīr and Qurʾanic Sciences)
Tanta — Arab Republic of Egypt
1429 AH / 2008
Supervised by Prof. Shukrī Shafīq al-Akhḍar and Prof. Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf Shalabī
693
Arabic
Abstract
This doctoral thesis examines the methodology of preponderance (tarjīḥ) employed by the Granadan exegete Imām Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbī (d. 741 AH) in his celebrated tafsīr, al-Tashīl li-ʿUlūm al-Tanzīl. Through close textual analysis, it reconstructs the principles upon which Ibn Juzayy founded his weighing of competing opinions—those rooted in the Qurʾanic text, the Prophetic Sunnah, the transmitted reports (āthār), and the linguistic usage of the Arabs—and subjects them to critical appraisal. The study then traces his preferred opinions across matters of creed, jurisprudence, and language, before turning to his preponderances within tafsīr bi’l-maʾthūr and the Qurʾanic sciences, including the qirāʾāt, abrogation (naskh), the occasions of revelation, the general and the particular, and pausing and resumption. Throughout, it balances Ibn Juzayy’s choices against the wider tradition of the exegetes, assessing both the soundness of his criteria and the consistency of their application. Comprising three chapters with an introduction, a prologue, a conclusion, and indices across some 693 pages, the work offers an applied model of the "jurisprudence of preponderance" (fiqh al-tarjīḥ) and brings into relief a robust Andalusian contribution to the science of Qurʾanic interpretation. It was awarded the doctoral degree (al-ʿĀlamiyya) by al-Azhar University — Faculty of Uṣūl al-Dīn, Tanta, in 1429 AH / 2008.
Full Text
⏱ 4 min readA scholarly thesis by which the researcher was awarded the doctoral degree (al-ʿĀlamiyya) in Uṣūl al-Dīn, in the specialization of Tafsīr and the Qurʾanic Sciences — Faculty of Uṣūl al-Dīn and Islamic Daʿwah in Tanta, al-Azhar University. Supervised by Professor Shukrī Shafīq al-Akhḍar and Professor Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf Shalabī. 1429 AH / 2008 CE. By Dr. Ahmed Muhammad Ali Abouseif, President of the American Imams Academy.
This is an introductory page presenting the thesis and the index of its topics; the complete text is available for download as a PDF at the bottom of the page.
About the Thesis A foundational and applied study addressing the preferred opinions (murajjaḥāt) of Imām Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Juzayy al-Kalbī al-Gharnāṭī (d. 741 AH) in his exegesis al-Tashīl li-ʿUlūm al-Tanzīl. It draws out the principles upon which he founded his weighing of opinions (tarjīḥāt), then traces these preponderances through their loci in the tafsīr, presenting them in a critical, scholarly manner that balances the views of the exegetes against one another, and appraising the Imām's method of preponderance and the consistency with which he applied it.
The thesis rests upon three major chapters, preceded by an introduction and a preliminary survey, and followed by a conclusion and indices. The first chapter establishes the foundations of Ibn Juzayy's principles of preponderance — those bearing upon the Qurʾanic text, the Prophetic Sunnah, the transmitted reports (āthār), and the usage of the Arabs in their vocabulary and their constructions — and then appraises them. The second chapter traces his preferred opinions in matters of creed, jurisprudence, and language. The third chapter presents his preferred opinions in tafsīr bi'l-maʾthūr (exegesis by transmitted reports) and the Qurʾanic sciences: in the interpretation of the Qurʾan by the Qurʾan, by Ḥadīth, and by transmitted report; in interpretation by considered opinion (al-raʾy); in the Qurʾanic readings (qirāʾāt); and then in questions of the Qurʾanic sciences — the first of what was revealed, abrogation (naskh), the occasions of revelation, the general and the particular, and pausing and resumption — concluding with a comprehensive appraisal of his principles of preponderance.
The aim of all this is to bring into relief a robust Andalusian method of preponderance in the hands of one of the eminent masters of exegesis, to lay bare its foundations and its sources, and to offer an applied model of the "jurisprudence of preponderance" (fiqh al-tarjīḥ) among the views of the exegetes.