interpretive statements

One of the great mystics of the 6th century AH was Rouzbehan Fasaie Shirazi. He was a Shafei Sunni Muslim, currently well known for his book Ara’is ul-Bayan which is, indeed, a subjective interpretation of the Qur’an. He has dealt with some of the Qur’anic verses by making references to previous mystics as well as Imam Sadeqh’s statements. It is important to analyze the book because it is, first of all, written in a mystical mode and, secondly, there are quotations from Imam Sadeqh (pbuh). The inclusion of Imam’s views in the book may wrongly imply that mystic views were accepted to him. So far, there has been a bulk of research on Ara’is ul-Bayan, but no study is conducted yet exclusively on the statements of Imam Sadeqh in that book. The present study seeks to verify those statements in terms of both contents and references. In other words, the study aims to determine how well the remarks may be attributed to Imam. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the research has found that many of the statements, though conceptually correct and mystically precious, are not referentially valid enough to be attributed to Imam Sadeqh. Besides, they do not conform to the fundaments of subjective interpretation.