A Critique and Analysis on the Theory of Qur’an-sufficiency in the Words of some Contemporary Scholars of Iran

Some contemporary Shiite scholars of Iran with some incentives such as enacting a number of modifications and reforms on religious beliefs and fighting against religious superstition have come to believe in certain ideas and theories. Moreover, they have shown some slight inclination towards the theories of the Sunnites and sometimes Wahhabism concepts for some notions and thoughts. Rezāqoli Shari’at Sanglaji, Abolfazl Borqe’ee and Mostafa Hosseini Tabātabāyee are among the key characters of this inclinations. One of their particular notions is Qur’anism with low-attention to Sunnah. The belief to Qur’an-sufficiency is among their most significant notions. The theory of Qur’an-sufficiency is taken into consideration in two fields of adequacy of Qur’an for the guidance of human being and also its needlessness to supplementary religious narratives and ahādith. The main concern of this thesis is to analyze and critique this theory and its justification evidence in both above-mentioned fields. Reading all works of these three scholars and analyzing their opinions, we concluded that among these three, just Abolfazl Borqe’ee believes in Qur’an-sufficiency and the other two, despite their extreme Qur’anism, do not have such belief. Moreover, regarding the principle of Nubuwwah (Prophethood), Borqe’ei has not rejected Sunna and Hadith, but rather has paid little attention and reference to Hadith and Sunnah, and has considered the Holy Qur’an sufficient and adequate for the guidance of mankind with its self-sufficient nature needing no exegesis and interpretation. Borqe’ee’s reasons for Qur’an-sufficiency in human guidance include some Qur’anic mentioned reasons such as “adequacy and sufficiency of the Holy Qur’an for guidance of mankind”, “existence of all religious precepts, cognitions and insights as well as all human needs within Qur’an”, “monopoly of the Holy Qur’an for the guidance of mankind” and “the status of the Holy Qur’an as a just trusted arbitrator and reference for dispute resolutions”, as well as some sociological, intellectual and narrative reasons. The reasons for Qur’an self-sufficiency in interpretation and its needlessness to any exegesis are as follows: “Transparency of its verses and the necessity to reflect upon it,” “its needlessness neither to Infallible Imam’s (a.s.) interpretation nor to absolute inherent interpretation due to its understandability”, “lack of need to comprehend the paraphrase of analogous similar verses,” “the nature of the text of narratives and ahādith as being more difficult to comprehend than Qur’anic verses”, “existence of conflicting news and even lies in interpretive narratives” and “the mandatory compliance of narratives with Qur’an”. In addition to explaining these reasons, the current thesis is taking them into consideration for study and critique. Finally, none of the evidence and reasons of sufficiency and adequacy of Qur’an for the guidance of human beings and its self-sufficiency nature in interpretation were not considered enough and the need to a second criterion is inferred.