مقاصدی تفسیر اور اس کے ہمزاد: ایک تمیز جو ابہام دور کرتی ہے

By Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Ali Abouseif, President of the American Imams Academy.

First: Objective-Based Tafsīr and "the Objectives of the Qur'an"

"The objectives of the Qur'an" are a subject and a body of content: they are the great goals for which the Qur'an was revealed — such as guidance, the rectification of belief, and the purification of the soul. Objective-based tafsīr, by contrast, is a method and an act of inquiry that invests those objectives in understanding particular verses and applying them to reality. Between the two there is generality and particularity: the objectives of the Qur'an are the great "map" of goals, while objective-based tafsīr is the "journey" you take with this map through each verse.

Put another way: the objectives of the Qur'an are a conclusion that scholars derive from surveying the whole Qur'an, while objective-based tafsīr is a process that employs this conclusion in interpreting individual passages. Every objective-based interpretation invokes the objectives of the Qur'an, but not every discussion of the objectives of the Qur'an is an objective-based interpretation of the verses; for a scholar may present the general objectives as a theoretical study without interpreting a specific verse by them.

Second: Objective-Based Tafsīr and Thematic Tafsīr

Thematic tafsīr gathers the verses of a single theme — such as patience, spending, or water — from the scattered sūras of the Qur'an to form from them an integrated picture of that theme. Objective-based tafsīr searches for the goal and the wisdom behind the text. The two often meet, so the verses of a theme are gathered and then their unifying objective is examined; indeed, among the most beneficial paths of objective-based tafsīr is for a thematic gathering to precede it.

Yet the angle, in the end, differs: the thematic is concerned with "gathering and exhaustiveness," while the objective-based is concerned with "deriving the goal." The former's question is: what did the Qur'an say about this theme? The latter's question is: why did it say it, and what does it want from us thereby? The thematic answers "what," and the objective-based completes it by answering "why" and "toward what end."

Third: Objective-Based Tafsīr and the Tafsīr of the Verses of Rulings

The tafsīr of the verses of rulings (the juristic current) derives the practical ruling from the verse: obligation, prohibition, validity, invalidity, conditions, and pillars. Objective-based tafsīr expounds the wisdom of the ruling, its goal, and the interest for which it was legislated. The difference between them lies in two matters: in the question — the juristic asks "what is the ruling?" while the objective-based asks "why this ruling, and to what goal does it lead?"; and in scope — the juristic is confined to the verses of rulings, which are relatively few, while the objective-based encompasses the verses of belief, ethics, narratives, parables, and the cosmos, searching in all of these for their objective. The objective-based is thus broader in field and deeper in insight, though it does not dispense with the juristic but completes it.

Fourth: Objective-Based Tafsīr and Interpretation (Taʾwīl)

Blameworthy taʾwīl diverts a word from its apparent sense to a weaker meaning without a recognized proof; it projects onto the text what the reader wants beforehand and then seeks for it a garment from the verses. Objective-based tafsīr is the opposite: it adheres to the apparent sense of the word and its context first, then examines the objective that agrees with that apparent sense, so it does not clash with the meaning but builds upon it.

The essential difference is fidelity to the text: the objective-based interpreter is a servant of the word, drawing out its goal, while the deviant interpreter dominates the word, bending it to his goal. Hence the controls — which the sixth article sets out — are a safety valve preventing the objective-based method from sliding into a deviant interpretation that wears the garb of objectives; for if the objective-based method is unfastened from its controls, it is on the verge of turning into interpretation by whim.

A Distinguishing Summary

Objective-based tafsīr, then, is a method of inquiry that searches for the goals and interests of the text; it invokes the objectives of the Qur'an as its material, intersects with thematic tafsīr in gathering and exceeds it by deriving the goal, goes beyond the juristic from asking about the ruling to asking about its wisdom, and differs essentially from taʾwīl by its adherence to the apparent sense of the word and its context. By these four boundaries the method preserves its identity so it does not dissolve into others, and the reader benefits from it so it does not lead him astray.

This is followed by the third article: "The Origin and Development of Objective-Based Tafsīr Across the Centuries."

| A takeaway for life: Before you describe an understanding as "objective-based," weigh it on two questions: Did it set out from the correct meaning of the word? And does it search for a recognized legal goal rather than a whim? If it is sound on both, it is a disciplined objective-based reading; otherwise it is interpretation that names itself with the name of objectives. | |---|