Critique of Assuming Kamāl as Equivalent to “State Authority of Religion in the Verse Ikmāl

Three different viewpoints can be observed among interpreters in elucidation of the meaning of perfection of religion in verse three of Sūrat al-Mā’ida. Some have implied it as the outcome of the “universality of religion” after completion of the revealed commands and others have assumed “sovereignty of religion” upon the expansion and influence of Islam as equivalent to perfection, while the third group, who mostly include the Shi’ite interpreters, have considered “eternity of religion” along with devotion to Imams (wilāya) as equivalent to perfection. Given the fact that the verse “perfection of religion” is among the verses of special revelation occasion and, on the other hand, the object of perfection is omitted and the outer aspect of the verse, at least in the first glance, does not obviously denote what perfection is dependent upon, most interpreters have sufficed with mentioning the interpretational traditions concerning the revelation occasion in explaining the meaning of perfection and have scarcely engaged in an inquiry deeper than the intra-textual evidences in order to elucidate the object of perfection. Thus, the present paper has undertaken to analyze and examine the exegetical viewpoint of the second group in accordance with some intra-textual evidences.