Usool at-Tafseer Part 16 (Conclusion) By Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips
Usool at-Tafseer (The Fundamental Principles of Qur'aanic Interpretation)
Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips.
CONCLUSION.
The second extreme is to consider oneself learned after having read a couple of books on Islaam. Such persons feel duty-bound to correct the “mistakes” of those around them when they see them doing something they are unfamiliar with, or when they have heard somebody somewhere say that a certain practice is wrong, but they themselves have not studied the different positions of scholars on
the issue along with their evidences. I hope that this book will impress upon such people the complexity of the Islaamic sciences, especially since that which has been presented here is the tiniest tip of an iceberg compared to what has been written on the subject in Arabic. I would hope that if the reader gets nothing else out of the book, that he or she will leave with a standard by which to measure the statements of those who are offering interpretations of the Qur’aan. We live in a time when non-Muslims are very eager for the Muslims to reinterpret the sources of our deen. Fundamental to such efforts is reinterpretation of the Qur’aan. Muslims are fairly wary of non- Muslim reinterpretations, but there is a whole reinterpretation movement being advocated by Muslims. This movement, which is especially strong among Muslims living or trained in the West, takes many assumptions of western
industrial civilization as self-evident truths which must be accommodated in the Muslims’ understanding and practice of Islaam. 135 Soorah at-Tawbah (9):31. One of the main methods of this movement is that a position on a given issue is taken, then evidence is sought to support it. One of their favorite tactics is to argue on the basis of a particular verse on an issue, often according to their own new interpretation, while ignoring other verses which make their interpretation impossible. A classic example of this is the distorted tafseer of verse 62 of Soorah al-Baqarah: “Verily, those who believe, and those who are Jews, and Christians, and Sabaeans—whoever believes in Allaah and the Last Day and does right—they will have their reward with their Lord and there will be no fear upon them neither will they grieve.” They say this verse is clear proof that Jews and Christians are believers, that we are all brothers and that the only criteria for entry into paradise are belief in Allaah and the Day of Judgment along with good deeds. However, Muslim scholars throughout history have interpreted this verse in light of verses 150-1 of Soorah an-Nisaa’
“Verily, those who disbelieve in Allaah and His messengers and want to make a distinction between Allaah and His messengers, and who say, ‘We believe in some and disbelieve in others,’ and want to pursue a path in-between—they are truly disbelievers; and I have prepared a humiliating torment for the disbe-lievers.” This passage clearly refers to the Jews, who deny that Jesus and Muhammad
(peace be upon them both) were prophets, and the Christians, who deny Muhammad’s prophethood.136 How then could Jews and Christians who heard about Muhammad (r) and rejected his prophethood be promised that they would get a reward and have nothing to fear? A person who interprets the verse from Soorah al-Baqarah in that way has taken a position that requires the Qur’aan to contradict itself, which is in itself a position of disbelief. Therefore, the consensus of Muslim scholars is that there are two valid possible interpretations of the verse. The first is that Jews at the time of Moses and Christians at the time of Jesus who believed in Allaah and followed the prophet sent to them have been promised this reward. The other is that after the mission of Prophet Muhammad (r), the stated reward is for those among the various religious groups who believe in Allaah and the Last Day and do good as defined in the final revelation, having believed in Muhammad (r) as a prophet sent to them.137 These two interpretations take into account all of the
evidence (of which only a fraction has been mentioned for the sake of brevity), while the first does not. Another common technique to be wary of is tafseer of the Qur’aan solely on the basis of linguistic meanings of the words. For such tafseers to sound plausible, the Sunnah must be ignored. You see some of them rejecting a hadeeth because it was only reported by a handful of sahaabah! This methodology has been a common feature of deviant pseudo-Islaamic groups throughout history.
Hopefully, the reader, after finishing this book, will be able to recognize the flaws in such agenda driven reinterpretations. I ask Allaah to guide all of us to that which pleases Him and to save us from ruin in the hereafter. 136 See Tafseer Ibn Katheer, vol. 1, p. 585, al-Jaami‘ li Ahkaam al-Qur’aan, vol. 6, pp. 5-6, and Tafseer at-Tabaree, vol. 4, pp. 343-4. 137 See Tafseer Ibn Katheer , vol. 1, pp. 107-8, al-Jaami‘ li Ahkaam al-Qur’aan, vol.1, pp. 295-6, Tafseer at-Tabaree, vol. 1, pp. 361-5 and Rooh al-Ma‘aanee, vol. 1, p. 280.
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The End
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