Typology of Ibn-e Shahr-Ashub's Interpretation Fundamentals in Motashabeh al-Quran

Undoubtedly, pious scholars of Islam as the successors of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and the infallible Imams (a.s.) are the only individuals who have vast knowledge of the interpretation and explication of the Holy Quran. Muhammad ibn-e Ali ibn-e Shahr-Ashub Sarvi Mazandarani is one of the great scholars who has contributed a lot to the promotion of the valuable teachings of Islam and the Holy Quran by authoring a number of admirable books. Motashabeh al-Quran is one of his precious works authored in the field of interpretation of the Quran. It is a two-volume, rich work carrying a full load of Quranic themes and discussions on the ambiguous and complicated verses of the Holy Quran. In this study, an attempt has been made to carefully examine and evaluate some of the interpretation techniques utilized by ibn-e Shahr-Ashub to explicate the Devine verses. The findings of the this study suggest that the most significant interpretation techniques and types utilized by the author of Motashabeh al-Quran are utilization of the verses related to a single issue, use of the syntactic rules of Arabic language, employment of interpretive narrations, benefitting from the revelation circumstances of verses, reference to the consensus among interpreters, explication of the meaning of the single words of verses, benefiting from the surface of verses, reference to the non-manifest meaning of verses, criticism of narrations, pointing out manifestations of verses, reference to credibility of wisdom, interpretation of the verses of prescripts, explanation of the rhetorical address and utilization of the literary figures in the Quran.