Studying the Quranic documentation of Unity in the Theological System of the Ibadis according to Tafsir Taysir al-Tafsir by Attafayyash and its Comparison with Allamah Tabatabaei’s Exegetic View

The Ibadis (ibāḍiah) are a branch of the Kharijites that have survived until today. Their belief system is an almost independent system and scholars and exegetes such as Attafayyash have strived to explain and protect it. An important issue is the analysis of the Ibadis’ suppositions regarding the Unity of God and comparing them to the perceptions of an exegete such as Allamah Tabatabaei who has explained Quranic monotheism through a Quran to Quran (interpreting the Quran through the Quran) method. The present study, utilizing an analytic method, is a comparative study between the exegetic understandings of Attafayyash and Allamah Tabatabaei regarding Divine Unity. Both believe in the oneness of God’s essence and the selfsameness of His attributes with His essence; however, Attafayyash’s exegetic perceptions are based on a rational, narrative, and Quranic method, are influenced by historical precedents, are a mix of the beliefs of the Asharites and Mutazilites, and a modification of the beliefs of the Kharijites. Whereas Allamah’s perception is based on a Quranic method and is free from personal intellectual affiliations. Attafayyash concludes tanzīh, God’s incomparability (the belief that God is exalted and His attributes are incomparable to those of creation) while Allamah concludes a combination of tashbīh (common conception of attributes that are shared between God and human beings) and tanzīh. Their views regarding the observability of God are different at two levels. Attafayyash accepts free will in the form of the Theory of Creation and Attainment while Allamah accepts free will with a linear view of the will of God and human beings