A Late Known Function but untold of Makkī and Madanī Knowledge (An Approach Based on Al-Mīzān Commentary)

Though The Quranic knowledge of Meccan and Medinan (Makkī and Madanī), like some Quranic sciences, has been formed to be influential on the interpretation of the Quran and serve as a way to better comprehension of verses, practically, "the role of this knowledge in the interpretation" has been limited to few usages in the sources of Quranic sciences and has been neglected throughout the thousands of exegetical pages; hence, to illustrate how and how much this knowledge contributes to the development of exegetical discussions, as well as to learn how to use it in understanding verses, it is necessary to reconsider the exegetical sources. The study of the extent of functions of the knowledge of Meccan and Medinan shows that this knowledge has been influential in the issue of “critique” in exegeses. This function is more than of that embodied in the Quranic sciences books for the knowledge of Meccan and Medinan. The issue of critique in the commentary of al-Mīzān presents in two completely different forms and mechanisms: firstly “partial” critique and secondly “general”. Examples of these two forms are seen in three areas of "critique of narration", "critique of exegetical views," and "critique of abrogation of a verse" in the commentary of al-Mīzān. A study of exegetes before ‘Allāmah Ţabāṭabāʼī, regarding his applied examples, proves that they did not generally use the general critique as such he used, showing his concern to the knowledge of Meccan and Medinan. Meanwhile, in his book, the contradiction between the time of revelation of a verse and a narration did not always lead to critique of narration, but he preserved the narration in various ways, and even occasionally used the knowledge of Meccan and Medinan in order to defense the narration.