Bayyinat min Fiqh al-Qurʾan
A New Methodology in the World of Exegesis
Book title: Bayyinat min Fiqh al-Qurʾan.
Author: The religious authority (marjaʿ) Grand Ayatollah Sayed Muhammad Taqi al-Modarresi (may his shadow endure).
Edition: First, 1431 AH / 2010 CE, 258 pages.
Publisher: Al-ʿAsr Center for Culture and Publishing.
With the publication of the book Bayyinat min Fiqh al-Qurʾan by the religious authority (marjaʿ) Grand Ayatollah Sayed Muhammad Taqi al-Modarresi (may his shadow endure) in the year 1431 AH, a new methodology has been added to the Qurʾanic methodologies of exegesis, one that can be described as marked by maturity, depth and advancing steps toward more Qurʾanic knowledge.
We cannot discover the book (Bayyinat min Fiqh al-Qurʾan) comprehensively unless we shed light on the exegesis (Min Huda al-Qurʾan) by the same author. The exegesis Min Huda al-Qurʾan was published as a book interpreting the Qurʾan in its thirty parts, in eighteen volumes, nearly thirty years ago; it was also published in its Persian translation, and then it was published in a new form in the year 1430 AH in twelve volumes.
The author, His Eminence the Marjaʿ al-Modarresi, is a profoundly learned Qurʾanic jurist; you hardly see any book among his writings that you could not consider a thematic exegesis. But in the exegesis Min Huda al-Qurʾan he followed the course of the prevailing exegeses that interpreted the Holy Qurʾan from the beginning of its verses to their end. He adopted the methodology of (contemplation of the Qurʾan), whose foundations and methodology he laid down in a book titled (Buhuth fi al-Qurʾan al-Hakim), and the introduction to the exegesis contained that pioneering methodology, by virtue of which the exegesis came to cast its shadows on the soul educationally and in terms of the Mission, as it shed light on the educational and reformist dimensions, and those of the Mission, in the blessed verses, in order to arrive at shaping the thought of the Mission, the society of the Mission and the personality of the Mission.
The methodology of the exegesis (Min Huda al-Qurʾan) relied on the principle of the thematic unity of the surah, such that he defines the (general framework) of the surah, then seeks to divide it into multiple topics, which in turn are connected among themselves by a thematic link; at the beginning of each section he sheds light on the topic in general, then begins the detailed treatment, interrogating the verses directly. This is the general methodology, and we are not here to speak about the detailed characteristics of the exegesis Min Huda al-Qurʾan al-Karim; rather, it is a quick overview so that we grasp the position of the new methodology in the book (Bayyinat min Fiqh al-Qurʾan).
(Bayyinat min Fiqh al-Qurʾan), of which four volumes have been published so far, is a project for a new exegesis of the Holy Qurʾan. Our review will take the first volume, which contains the exegesis of the whole of Surat al-Nur, as an example of the other volumes. Perhaps the first question that may occur to the mind as we stand before this publication is: What distinguishes the new exegesis from the exegesis that preceded it?
The answer to this question is what will acquaint us with the book more clearly.
The book is not a repetition of the exegesis, nor a repetition of the methodology, nor a repetition of the aims; there is a difference in all of these aspects from the previous experience. One who studies it finds that the author has followed a new methodology, an additional methodology that enables the exegete to dive into the depths of the blessed verses to draw from their insights more deeply. For after the Marjaʿ al-Modarresi had practiced the process of interpreting the Qurʾan in the experience of (Min Huda al-Qurʾan), he made the verses of the Holy Qurʾan the axis of his talks on philosophy, jurisprudence, principles (usul), society and politics, as he mentioned in the introduction to the book; and in this he advances in delving deeply into the Holy Qurʾan. He says in the introduction to the book: (I am still at the first step of an extended road that does not end, and I firmly believe that the distance between us and the Book of our Lord is widening. Is it not that the superiority of the Qurʾan over all other speech is like the superiority of Allah over His creation, and that we must labor toward our Lord laboriously in order to encounter Him? You may draw near to Him by His grace, but we will never reach Him, because we are the created and He, our Lord the Exalted, is the Creator).
Characteristics of the Methodology
1/ The Thematic Aspect
The exegesis has specialized in searching for the divine sunan contained in the verses; thus the book’s description on its cover came as (a Qurʾanic study based on deriving the divine sunan from the verses of the Wise Reminder), and this was evident in the book, as the author maintained this methodology, which he made his basic aim in this exegesis. The divine sunan are those general laws that govern the movement of the human being, the movement of natural phenomena and the movement of created beings in general. Since the subject of Surat al-Nur is a social subject that deals with the issues of society, the family and the general relations among people, the sunan that the exegesis dealt with are those connected with the movement of society, which form its foundations, its starting points, the essence of its character and its basic features, and all its relations with the other and with faith. Its headings came, for example, as follows: (Mutual Attraction in Creation), (The Family Is the Foundation of Society), (The Effect of Punishments in Fortifying the Family), (The Responsibility of the Umma toward Conspiracies), (How Slanderous Accusation Shakes the Security of Society), (Benefits Are the Aim of Public Buildings), (So That Society Remains Pure).
Because it researches the sunan, the discussion has focused on deriving from the verses of the Holy Qurʾan the general laws that govern the movement of the human being, without elaborating on examples and without detailing the topics; rather, it sheds light on the general rules and laws, such as the passage on (compassion), in which he says: (Compassion aims at reforming social relations, so that people become more cohesive. As for those who corrupt these relations by violating their rules, compassion toward them increases them in error and corruption). He suffices with this amount of explanation in order to give free rein to the researcher in detailing and applying it to reality.
From here we can understand the word fiqh that came in the book’s title (min Fiqh al-Qurʾan): the aim is to focus on the general headings and the sunan that are a starting point, an axis and a root for many branches, details and applications.
2/ The Division
The surah has its general subject that it treats, and everything it mentions is related to the basic subject, even if it is divided into distinct topics. In the exegesis (Bayyinat min Fiqh al-Qurʾan) the author relied on treating each verse on its own, considering it the thematic section that he takes up in his research, and deriving from it the sunan that it encapsulates; he presents each verse and then conducts the discussion of the topic within it. That is why the book’s topics came to equal the number of the surah’s verses. This is an important feature of the methodology, as the ability to derive thematically from a single verse became evident, in a way that supports the aim of the book, that is, the aspect of the sunan.
That extensive division, which equals the number of the surah’s verses, was not devoid of reference to the thematic link between the verses. He states it directly on many occasions, and most of the time he refrains from referring to it explicitly; yet it is clear in view of the thematic treatment and the bringing out of the meaning that is in harmony with the preceding context—as when he speaks about some sins in a verse, then speaks about pardon and focuses the discussion on emerging from sin through pardon; or he mentions a social problem in a verse and derives its sunan, such as spreading indecency, for example, then takes up in another verse the remedy for that problem and explains the general sunan in it.
At times the author does not refrain from referring explicitly to the interconnection between the verses, and indeed from explaining their relation to the basic subject of the surah. For example, when he takes up verse (47), he says: (This is a set of verses which, together with those that preceded it, makes twelve verses that remind of obedience to the Messenger, and that it is a basic pillar of faith. So what is the connection between it and the framework of the surah, and why did the context negate the faith of one who turns away from obedience?).
So from here, the answer to the connecting question may be the exegesis of the verse to be interpreted; he enumerates the reasons for the interconnection and explains the wisdom of (the position) in the context, and a set of new insights appears to us.
3/ Contemplation
In deriving from the verses and interrogating them, the author relied on the method of Qurʾanic contemplation (tadabbur), by stirring the intellect with direct questions. In most of the verses (the topics), he begins with a question with which he surprises the intellect, to urge it to answer, since the question is the key to knowledge, as in the noble narrations from the Ahl al-Bayt (a), and as the command came from the Ahl al-Bayt (a) to interrogate the Holy Qurʾan. The author also continues to pose questions in the course of the topic. For example, he begins the exegesis of the third verse of the surah with the question: (Is nikah marriage, or is it here an expression of the sexual practice itself? And is the verse in the course of stating a sharia ruling, or a divine sunna?). And in the fifth verse, for example, he says: (Despite the gravity of the sin and the atrocity of its social effects, repentance folds up its page and washes away its shame and disgrace. How?).
As for the other aspect of the methodology of contemplation, it is the kind of questions that the author poses. They are not questions about the meaning of a word or the meaning of a verse; rather, the questions came to serve the aim of the general methodology, which is the sunan-based approach in the treatment. So the question does not come as: What does this verse mean? but rather: What does it lead to? Why did the context come in this position? What are the benefits of this ruling? What is the connection between this position and that one? and the like. For example, a question came in the discussion of “if you believe in Allah and the Last Day” (Qurʾan 24:2), (What is the connection between religious beliefs—the most prominent of which are monotheism and justice—and these rulings?), and a question about the curse (Why the curse?), and a question on the verse “Were it not for Allah’s grace and His mercy upon you” (Qurʾan 24:10): (What would our life become without Allah’s grace and His mercy?).
These questions call for answers that reveal what lies behind the verse; he brings out the deep and concomitant meanings in order to extract those sunan that govern the course of the human being, which, if he comprehends them, he has been given wisdom: “and he, who is given wisdom, is certainly given an abundant good” (Qurʾan 2:269).
4/ The Style of Presentation
The author relied on a distinctive style in presenting the idea and treating the verses. In addition to the division, in which he made each verse a separate section under a heading of its own, he then begins with the question and the provocation by which he enters the topic directly, without preliminaries or lengthiness; he presents the ideas in the form of points or interconnected divisions; then, under a unified heading at the end of each verse, namely (Insights and Rulings), he extracts the sunan and displays them in the form of concise and expressive phrases.
So each section of the book contains four parts: (the title of the topic), then (the verse that is the subject of the research), then (the main text: which contains the ordered questions and answers), then (Insights and Rulings: which is the formulation of the sunan in short and clear phrases). The book also contains margins on both sides of the pages, placed in text boxes, containing important phrases summarized from the main text, whose aim is to summarize and to remind of the important ideas.
