A Comprehensive Methodology of Ibn Abi al-Hadid's Commentary on Nahj al-Balāghah

Ibn Abi al-Hadid Muʿtazilī, as the most famous commentator of Nahj al-Balāghah, organized his own book called "Sharh Nahj al-Balāghah", which is considered one of the best commentaries of Nahj al-Balāghah, in order to explain the words of Amir al-Muʾminīn, he used methods so that the explanation of the words would be pleasing to his position, he also has paid special attention in its interpretation, and he has based his explanation on the implementation of rules. This article examines the important methods available to ibn Abi al-Hadid, such as the extraction of Quranic, hadith, literary, historical, theological, and explanation methods based on other sub-sciences in relation to the explanation and interpretation of Imam's words, and it tries to show that in extracting these methods, he explained the words of Amir al-Muʾminīn (as) with principles, criteria and propositions, which is worthy of attention. Also, at the end, many tables and graphs are presented with a statistical view. The sources he relied on are the basis of the use of such methods, which can be concluded that ibn Abi al-Hadid interprets the words of the Imam (as) as a critical mujtahid, and in his ijtihad, he cites the Qurʾan, hadith, literature, history, theology and other such matters; in addition, his three literary, historical and theological methods can be considered special among his methods.