Seraje Monir

A Study of Qur’anic Scholars’ Understanding of Contextual Evidence in Tafsīr al-Mīzān

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

ali hasanbeygi

Associate Professor, Department of Quranic and Hadith Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Arak University, Arak, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22054/ajsm.2025.83150.2092
Abstract
The concept of contextual evidence (Qarīnat al-Sīyāq) is one of the most significant methodological principles in the interpretation of the Holy Qur’an and has consistently played a crucial role in identifying the intended divine meaning and resolving ambiguities in Qur’anic verses. Among contemporary exegetes, Allāmeh Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabāṭabāʾī, in his interpretation of the Qur’an, employed contextual evidence more extensively than many other commentators. Hence, sīyāq became one of the fundamental pillars of his exegetical methodology in al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qur’ān. Nevertheless, there is significant disagreement concerning what Allāmeh actually intended by the term sīyāq. Many contemporary studies have attributed their understanding of contextual evidence to Allāmeh’s interpretive approach without undertaking a systematic analysis of the internal textual evidence in al-Mīzān. Therefore, the present study attempted to re-examine the concept of contextual evidence in Allāmeh Ṭabāṭabāʾī's exegetical thought process and to critically assess its prevailing scholarly interpretations.
This study adopted a descriptive-analytical methodology to directly examine every occurrence of the term sīyāq throughout al-Mīzān. After exploring both the lexical and technical meanings of sīyāq, its various applications in Qur’anic exegesis, Arabic literary studies, and principles of Islamic jurisprudence (’uṣūl al-fiqh) were analyzed. Subsequently, all instances in which the term appears in al-Mīzān were systematically examined. The findings demonstrated that, contrary to the common assumption and interpretation, Allāmeh did not restrict sīyāq to the textual connection between preceding and succeeding verses. Rather, in many cases, he employed the concept to refer to the thematic, semantic, and overall conceptual content of the verses. Moreover, Allāmeh frequently interpreted individual verses solely based on their content, rather than referring to the preceding or succeeding verses, and repeatedly employed expressions such as ẓāhir al-sīyāq, which means “the apparent implication of the context”.
The study further demonstrated that subscribing to this understanding resolves many of the objections concerning the apparent inconsistency between Allāmeh’s extensive reliance on contextual evidence and his belief that the arrangement of certain Qur’anic verses was based on independent reasoning (ijtihād). Thus, if sīyāq primarily refers to the verses’ thematic content rather than their sequential arrangement, its interpretive function is not entirely dependent on the present order of the Qur’anic text

Keywords

Allāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī
al-Mīzān
contextual evidence (Qarīnat al-Siyāq)
thematic content
semantic meaning
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