Critique of Hassan al-Din Ahmad's commentary on the Qur'anic interpretation of "Far Al-tannur

In the early days of Islam because of the presence of the Prophet (pbuh) and his companions, the Qur'anic words and idioms were not very ambiguous and complex. The earliest books of Gharib Al-Quran were compiled in the second century AH. (Sezgin, 1992, vol. 1 p. 29) The emergence of these works shows that the passing of time, the change of geographical conditions in the field of Islam, as well as the loss of many companions and subordinates who were aware of the meanings of words are important factors in people's ignorance of the meanings of words in later periods. Therefore, some Qur'anic words become ambiguous over time and need to be explained; Abu Ubaydah (d. 210 AH) is the first well-known scholar to consider the fulfillment of this need as the most important motive for compiling the “Permissible Quran”. (Abu Ubaydah, Bita, 8-9) However, interpreters and thinkers have explained the Qur'anic words over time but Hasanuddin Ahmed's special explanation of Qur'anic terms and idioms has made his work worthy of study and analysis.A case study of the idiom of “Far Al-Tannur” has been reviewed in this article with emphasis on Hasanuddin Ahmed's point of view in the book "A New Approach to the Study of the Quran".  Hasanuddin Ahmed (1924-2019) is a lesser-known Quran scholar of the Indian subcontinent. Before the age of 50, he has introduced Urdu language and literature in his works and then his scientific activity in the field of language and literature, has been generally devoted to the Qur'an and history.Hasanuddin Ahmed in addition to the aforementioned book, has works on the basis of which it is possible to discover his methodology in approach to the Qur'an. The works have been published in two titles “A Brief History of Islam” in 593 pages in 2006 and “A Concise History of Islam Essays on the Religio Political History of Islam in 472 pages in 2007. These last two works show that there is an extra-textual (historical-sociological) approach to his Qur'anic works. The critique of this view in the present study also clarifies the dependence of the explanation of the Qur'an on the historical-sociological atmosphere of the Arabic literary. However, Hasanuddin does not mention these influences himself.  

The present study was performed by descriptive-analytic method. To answer the questions of this research, first the constitutive components of the idiom was explained from the perspective of dictionaries. Then, a brief explanation of the meaning of the word in the Sami languages ​​and after that interpreters’ view were considered and evaluated. At the end, Hasanuddin Ahmed's commentary on the idiom of “Far Al-Tannur” has been explained and examined.  

A methodical understanding of Qur'anic concepts is necessary in order to critique Hasanuddin Ahmed's view in explaining “Far Al-Tannur”. “Far Al-Tannur” is consisted of the words “Far” and “Tannur”. There is a little disagreement among philologists about the meaning of “Far”, and it means to boil and gush with a small difference among them. (Khalil bin Ahmad, 1988, vol. 8 p. 279; Ibn Manzur, vol. 5 p. 67), “Tannur” also despite its figurative meaning, usually means a place to bake bread (Khalil bin Ahmad, 1988, vol. 3 p. 154; Sahib bin Abbad, 1993, vol. 8 p. 353; Tha'alabi, 2001, p. 208; Zamakhshari, 1998, p. 96) and it is a common word in Farsi and Arabic language (Suyuti, 1993, vol. 1 p. 120) And even known as a loaned-word (word loan) from the Sami languages (Mashkour, 1978, vol. 1 p. 107) and even before that (Jeffery, 2007, P 94-95). The disagreement between interpreters’ views is based on the different figurative and real meanings of “Tannur” as well as idiomatic meaning of “Far Al-Tannur”. Relying on some narrations, the first group of interpreters have carried “Tannur” on the real meaning as a place to bake bread (for example: Fara, vol. 2 p. 14; Tabari, 1999, vol. 15 p. 317-322; Zamakhshari, 2010, vol. 17 p. 346; Tabatabai, 2011, vol. 10 p. 337) which is distorted despite the anxiety of the narrations as well as the linguistic critique carried out by some interpreter and Qur'an scholar.The second group of interpreters have taken the figurative meaning of “Tannur” that means the earth's surface (Fakhr Razi, 1999, vol. 17 p. 346; Ibn Ashur, 2001, vol. 12 p. 70; Ma’refat, 2000, vol. 2 p. 168) high place (Ibn Jawzi, 2001, vol. 2 p. 372; Fakhr Razi, 1999, vol. 17 p. 346) dawn (Seyyed Morteza, Bita, vol. 2 p. 170;tabresi, 1372,vol 5, p274; Qurtubi, 1985, vol. 9 p. 33) and the place where water collects in the ship (Seyyed Morteza, 2010, vol. 2 p. 436; Qurtubi, 1985, vol. 9 p. 33) which is critical and rejected.The third group of commentators has interpreted “Far Al-Tannur” as a term by referring to the background of terminological interpretations such as “Hami Ul-Watees” and some of them have considered “Far Al-Tannur” as an allusion to God’s wrath (Tabatabai, 2011, vol. 10 p. 337; Makarem Shirazi, 1992, vol. 9 p. 97) and a group has interpreted that to raise the bar (to increase water of flood) (Fakhr Razi, 1999, vol. 17 p. 346; Ibn Ashur, 2001, vol. 12 p. 70). Among these, the meaning of God's wrath due to the precedence of the figurative meaning over the real has been rejected by some (Seyyed Morteza, Bita, vol. 2 p. 170; tabresi, 1372,vol 5, p274; Fakhr Razi, 1999, vol. 17 p. 346); but the idiomatic meaning of increasing flood has enough support in the field of ancient Quranic linguistics, in other words it is based on the conversational principles of the Arabic language as well as it is reasonable from the point of view of historical methodology; thus the authors’ opinion in this article is in line with Ibn Ashur’s one.Hasanuddin Ahmed's opinion is in line with the authors' preferred opinion; and it increases understanding the Qur'an based on understanding its terms but it is not based on lexical review of commentators' views and evaluations. Therefore, in this sense, it is a kind of mental perception which made by the author. What Hasanuddin Ahmed refers to as a new approach can be found in the evaluation of the views of the predecessors as mentioned before. Therefore, Hasanuddin Ahmed’s view is distorted due to the lack of a specific basis in explaining the terms, the lack of the research method and not paying attention to the source. Hasanuddin Ahmed's explanation and analysis of Qur'anic idioms are among the historical-linguistic methods. Lack of attention to research methods puts the researcher on the path in which he votes with himself and makes methodical reading of Qur'anic idioms a personal reading. 

However Hasanuddin Ahmed's explanation of “Far Al-Tannur” is not literal and it is consistent with some of interpreters’ view; but it is criticizable from the aspect of base, method and source; Hasanuddin Ahmed does not represent any clear base to define his reason of choosing “Far Al-Tannur” meaning; he also does not render any specific method from the methodological point of view and his work has become such a dictionary of terms because of explanation of “Far Al-Tannur” and the other idioms. The author is silent on the phenomenon of perception in research and he does not refer to the works of the interpreters who have dealt with this meaning as well as discussed in this article from the source point of view.“Fawr” in “Far Al-Tannur” in terms of methodology, literally means the eruption and boiling that is attributed to smoke and fire and it metaphorically is also attributed to wrath. “Tannur” also based on dictionaries as well as Sami languages culture, in spite of disagreement in the end literally means an oven. Commentators' opinions on “Far Al-Tannur” vary according to the real and figurative meaning of “Tannur”. First, the real meaning of “Tannur” which is based on narrations and leads to the literal translation of “Far Al-Tannur”. This interpretation of the commentators is rejected because it is based on anxious narrations. Second, the figurative meaning of “Tannur” that refers to 4 meanings; the first figurative meaning is “earth's surface” that does not have enough evidence to accept and is rejected. The second one is "high and lofty place" which is not a common and well-known meaning and is more tasteful and rejected. The third one is "dawn of dawn" which has no proper form in terms of morphology and structure of the word and is based on the heart of the Qur'an. The fourth figurative meaning, "the place where water collects" is based on the same narrations that were mentioned in the first sense and is rejected due to the anxiety of the narrations. Third, an idiomic meaning that is not based on the singular meaning of the words “Far Al-Tannur”, and according to the verb of “Far” to God or water, respectively, means the end of divine wrath and also the highest level of water. According to the principles of Arabic dialogue, the historical-sociological methods and other evidences, “Far Al-Tannur” as an idiom means "reaching the highest level of water" that is intended by the authors, and Hasanuddin Ahmed's explanation lacks this methodical study.