نشریه پژوهش های قرآنی
سال بیست و دوم شماره 1 (پیاپی 82، بهار 1396)

The subject of this article is finding access to a step-by-step method of uncovering the Revelation occasion of the verses of the Qur’an and the criteria for their validation. In this discussion, which is one of the discourses of Qur’an sciences, with the library method and after giving the definition and explaining the application of the science of Revelation occasion, the earlier and later sources that have dealt more with Revelation occasion are listed according to their compilation date and the interpretations that have more discussed the Revelation occasion have been introduced. Then, five criteria are presented for the assessment and validation of these transmitted hadiths in relation to Revelation occasion, which are also used for removing the contradiction among different Revelation occasions concerning a single verse.
In the main part of the article, the step-by-step process of unveiling the Revelation occasion in one verse and the validation and removing contradiction is presented in twenty stages and a table is provided for assessment of the validity of the Revelation occasion.

The relation between the Qur’an and tradition (sunna) is among the most important discourses in Qur’an sciences. While considering the theory of sufficiency of the Qur’an as invalid, some believe that the Qur’an is not short of stating its intention and does not need others, including the tradition. In contrast, some others have considered tradition an evidence for understanding the Qur’an. They have considered the way of showing and stating the details and the referents, and the applicability and comparison and ta’wīls by the infallibles, which is the status set by Allah for them, as interpretation. The critics of this theory have asked that if the Qur’an was supposed to need others for stating its intention, the ambiguous verses (mutishābihāt) were prior, but the Exalted Allah has maintained the way to understand the ambiguous verses to be referring to the unequivocal verses (muḥkamāt) and not the tradition. Similarly, according to an indisputable tradition, the Qur’an governs tradition and the criteria for its soundness; then, how is it in need of tradition which is governed by it? The provider of this theory does not content himself with the Qur’an and is not ignorant of the status of tradition in the collection of Islamic teachings; because the Qur’an has explicitly called the words of the Prophet (S.A.W.) as Revelation, i.e., authority. However, this belief is not only not a reason for the Qur’an’s need for tradition, but it is the other way round. This analytical-descriptive research aims at showing the violability of the theories presented in educational texts on the interpretation of the Qur’an and tried to prove that what is not stated in the Qur’an has been pre-planned and tradition, along the Qur’an, provides what the Qur’an has assigned it to and tradition supports legitimacy only when the Qur’an’s intentions are clear.

One of the significant discourses in knowledge about the Sūras of the Qur’an is their independent character; that is to say inwardly they are quite coherent and outwardly distinguished from other Sūras. Perhaps it can be said that Sayyid Quṭb is the first interpreter who has made considerable attempts and has been able to somehow bring into view the coherent and distinguished character of each Sūra. However, searching into his phrasings revealed that his attempts have had some weaknesses, too; as he has not specified of what type should the character-bestowing basis of the Sūra be. For this reason, he sometimes tries to organize the character of the Sūra on a topical basis, sometimes on a specific purpose, and sometimes on a specific method of expression. This multiplicity has caused him in some cases to be confused in specifying characters for the Sūra and fail to prove the readers with a definite result. It can be concluded from an overall analysis of Sayyid Quṭb’s thought and performance that the true factor in development of the specific character of the Sūras is their purpose and not their topic or style of expression; because when Sayyid Quṭb tries to organize the character of a Sūra on the basis of a topic, he mostly involves in speaking in general terms and fails to properly reveal the coherence of the Sūra. However, when he tries to form the character of the Sūra on the basis of a specific purpose, he most often manages to do so. The unique role of purpose in bestowing character to the Sūra is reinforced by some other evidences, too.

One of the ancient exegetical methods is rationalism in interpretation. Given the fact that the fourth century AH has been the earliest point of this trend and since Sayyid Raḍī has been one of the pioneers of this method, an exploration of rationalistic components in his exegetical opinions was taken into consideration. This study showed that the instrumental intellect had been more used by Sayyid than the referential intellect. Using intellect as evidence to esoteric interpretation (ta’wīl) of the verses and interpretation of the verses by metaphorical and figurative meaning, using intellectual self-evidence indicating the predication of the verses to figurative meanings, analysis of literary concepts with rational analysis, rational analysis of the subject of speech, and examining the statements with respect to rational criteria are the most important components in Sayyid Raḍī’s exegetical methods. Along with systematic ta’wīls and interpretations homogenous with the Mu‘tazilī rationalistic interpreters, the ta’wīls lacking enough evidence and proofs, including the hadiths of the Infallibles, are among the characteristics of his interpretations.

By maximal focus on the Sunnī sources and examining the probable viewpoints about the referent of sā’il (asker) and its reasons, this research has tried to search an answer for the question as to why are the traditions and Revelation occasions different about this issue and to what degree has this difference been involved in determining the referent of sā’il. Thus, by exploring into hadiths and considering their similarity in stating the relation between verse 32 of Sūrat al-Anfāl and the verse of punishment, the place of befalling punishment or the silence of some people about it, the historical evidence, context of the verses, and order of Revelation, it has examined them textually and in terms of their chain of transmission, and concluded that while a misrepresentation has been taken place about the name sā’il, the theological motives have been very effective in distorting some facts and determination of the referent of sā’il and this very motives among the later scholars has caused some to deny the relation between this verse and verse 32 of Sūrat al-Anfāl.

“Recite the Qur’an with the Arab tunes” is a well-known hadith that has always been of concern to the scholars of qarā’at, jurists, and hadith experts in the field of Qur’an recitation and jurisprudential discourses, with each group trying to prove or disprove it proportionate to their jurisprudential ideological doctrines. The present article first critiques the sources and chain of transmitters of this hadith, either through Shī‘as or Sunnīs, and then by lexical and historical exploration, shows that singing and utilizing tunes has been common in the era of the Prophet (S.A.W.) and even before that. The faith of Islam has also used a specific type of this effective art in better communication of its message to the addressees after removing its negative embellishments and employed an exclusive voice-and-meaning oriented pattern. It is tried in this research to delineate some principles with the extant foreign and domestic evidences of the above hadith.

One of the most important issues of concern in the translation process is achieving equivalence in translation, which takes place through studying different aspects of language, especially attention to “the semantic elements of vocabulary”. This writing has examined and explored into the above approach concerning the renowned contemporary translations of the Holy Qur’an, including: Ayati, Arfa’, Elahi Qomshe’i, Saraj, Saffarzadeh, Fuladvand, Kavianpour, Garmarudi, Mujtabawi, Meshkini, and Makarem Shirazi within the challenging names of Sūrat al-Baqara with analytical-comparative method and has evaluated and critiqued their performance. What is meant by the semantic elements of vocabulary is to achieve semantic components which a word comprises. The total outcome of the research indicates that the translators have not had the attention needed for the issue of “the semantic elements of vocabulary” and in almost all instances they have referred to the initial and basic meaning and dispensed with the semantic components hidden in each word. The outcomes of the present research suggest that the above-mentioned translators’ performances are rated as 1. Very excellent (none), 2. Excellent (none), 3. Very good (Meshkini, Kavianpour, Mujtabawi), 4. Good (Ayati, Elahi Qomshe’i, Saraj, Garmarudi), 5. Fairly good (Fuladvand), 6. Average (Saffarzadeh), 7. Weak (Makarem Shirazi and Arfa’); thus, none of the translated are placed in the first two categories.