Appearance
Is the Qur’an an Authority in Itself?
Introduction to al-Tasnim · On method
The question
Can the apparent meanings of the Qur’an be understood and relied on by themselves, or only through the narrations of the Prophet’s Household?
Views answered: the Akhbārīs, among them al-Astarābādī
Jawādī Āmulī’s argument
Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī holds that the Qur’an is an independent authority in religious knowledge: its apparent meanings are open to everyone, while its full depths, outer and inner, belong to the Infallibles. He answers four objections, mostly from the Akhbārīs. The narrations draw their own authority from the Qur’an and are to be weighed against it, so making the Qur’an depend on them is circular; what the Imams claimed for themselves was knowledge of the whole Qur’an, not of its apparent sense. Yet he also faults the opposite extreme: knowing Arabic alone does not open the Qur’an’s depths.
Views compared
Each view is given as al-Tasnim reports it. Each point opens al-Tasnim at that place.
1. The two weighty things Read →
An objection
The Tradition of Thaqalayn makes the Book and the Prophet’s family inseparable, so the Qur’an cannot be understood apart from their narrations.Jawādī Āmulī
The Tradition equates the Household with the Qur’an, not their narrations; in teaching religion the Qur’an has the primary role; narrations are mostly conjectural; and their authority itself rests on the Qur’an, which is why they are to be weighed against it.2. Only the Infallibles understand the Qur’an Read →
The Akhbārīs (al-Astarābādī)
The Qur’an was revealed in a way enigmatic to ordinary minds; its apparent meanings may not be used without the Imams’ explanation.Jawādī Āmulī
Those narrations claim knowledge of the whole Qur’an, outer and inner, for the Infallibles, which is accepted (so Waḥīd Bihbihānī, Mīrzā Qummī and Shaykh Anṣārī). Making the Qur’an depend on narrations whose authority comes from the Qur’an is circular, and an enigma could not be the measure of narrations.3. Textual distortion Read →
The Akhbārīs
The text may have been altered, so its apparent meanings cannot be relied on.Jawādī Āmulī
No Muslim claims anything was added; a reduced Qur’an is held only by a minority of Akhbārīs, and the subject is treated in detail in the book Qurʾān bih Qurʾān.4. “Striking the Qur’an against the Qur’an” Read →
Some Akhbārīs
The Imams forbade explaining the Qur’an by the Qur’an.Jawādī Āmulī
With Shaykh al-Anṣārī: the prohibition is of misusing verses, such as general verses without their specifying ones or ambiguous verses without the clear, not of explaining the Qur’an by itself.Reading guide
Each step opens al-Tasnim at that point.