The Methodology of the Commentary Taʼvīlāt Ahl al-Sunnah

Al-Māturīdī is one of the theological divisions of Islam, which still has followers from the adherents of legal school of Ḥanafī. The founder of this theological sect is Abū Manṣūr Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Māturīdī (d. 333 AH) who is the author of several works, including a Quran commentary titled Taʼvīlāt Ahl al-Sunnah. In this work, applying mild intellectual and textual reasoning, he elaborates on the bases of his theological school as opposed to the ones of Ashari and Muʻtazila schools. In his theological discussions he gets involved in issues such as necessary intellectual cognition of God before the prophets being assigned, the belief in the creation of faith which results in belief in the creation of human acts, his special approach to the possibility of sighting God, which can be seen everywhere throughout his commentary. This study aims at identifying the methods and approaches applied in this commentary, a work reflecting al-Māturīdī's views as an exegete with theological presuppositions. Also, we seek to notify the differences and similarities of his methods from those of his contemporaries. As it will be indicated, he is more like a theologian than an exegete in his work, a fact that has caused the work to lack other aspects of exegesis such as linguistic, historical and legal discussions.