The Role of Lady Amin in the Development of Islamic Sciences with an Emphasis on Interpretive Knowledge and Method

The variety of subjects in Lady Amin’s (1274 – 1362 SH) books is indicative of her role in ethics, mysticism, philosophy, theology, and interpretation; however, in view of the preeminence of her Qur’anic attitude and her interpretation book in particular, the present article focuses on the role of Lady Amin in the knowledge and method of interpretation. This paper analyzes the role of Lady Amin in the evolutions of interpretive knowledge and method by an intratextual examination of Makhzan al-’Irfan interpretation and an extratextual standpoint (to study the extent of its effect on other works). According to the research findings, Makhzan al-’Irfan interpretation, although considering its title, initially reflects a mystical approach, after scrutinizing the content, one can observe Lady Amin’s jurisprudential, mystical, and narrative method, as well as her theological, social and educational approach to interpretation. This jurist lady’s interpretive method is a mixture of Qur’an-to-Qur’an, rational, narrative and intuitive methods. Determining her groundbreaking role in developing the knowledge of interpretation in women’s community, her influence in adopting interpretive methods in later interpretations and the ability to transform the combined method in interpretation by her into a new school of interpretation, are among other achievements of this article. “The Combined School of Interpretation” is the author’s proposed title for this method of interpretation. The frequency of citation from the interpretation book, Makhzan al-’Irfan, in later works and the writing of numerous articles based upon this commentary, indicate the prominent role of Lady Amin in the knowledge and method of interpretation.