The Method of Ibn ‘Ashoor and Tabrasi in Tafseer (A Comparative and Analytic Study)

(Tafseer) interpretation was always important to sages and faqihs (scholars) because it helps the Muslim in their religious life and shows them the right path. Thus, many schools were organized with different ideas and suggestions; some preferred to interpret the Holy Quran by the Holy Quran while others got aid from verse and other methods. Tafseer means the meaning of the words and phrases; it is a science which depend on understanding the Book of Allah (The Mighty) descended on our Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Tafseer can be done in many methods such as: interpreting with Hadith, with Quran itself, with the Sunnah, interpreting according to the speech of the Companions and Followers, and interpreting according to the personal ideas (both commended and defamed) and also the guiding and subjective interpretation. The faqih Ibn ‘Ashoor presented a good method in interpreting the Holy Quran by his book named (al-Tahrir wa al-Tanweer), he used the modern tools in interpretation and avoided tradition and old manners, and thus his interpretation held many serious cases and crisis whether in fiqh, eloquence and philosophy. He also did his best to keep the Islamic identity in his interpretation because he was well-informed with religious and fiqh sciences, and his main method was the Quran and his knowledge, but he didn’t neglect the method of the ancestors, and he dealt with many popular cases and the matter of eloquence in the Arabic language, and he also used the Quranic stories and tales in his interpreting with emphasize on the main subjects of worship. We have divided this study into three chapters: chapter one deals with definition of tafseer and its methods linguistically such as tafseer according to traditions, tafseer the Quran by the Quran itself, and tafseer according to sunnah and the tradition of followers, and tafseer by the ideas. In chapter two we focused on the methodology of tafseer according to Tabrasi and Ibn `Ashoor, and divided this chapter into many studies. In chapter three we mad a comparison between the tafseer of Imam Tabrasi and Ibn `Ashoor in three studies, and we finished this study with some results such as: the eminence of Imam Tabrasi in interpreting the Holy Quran depending on his masters’ sources like Toosi, and thus he was the only Muslim character who depended on confident sources such as the Holy Prophet (pbuh) who is the first interpreter of the Holy Quran. In this field we may also mention the Imam Tabrasi who presented a good interpretation through his book (Majma’ul Bayan) which became one of the best interpretation to the Shia. In his book Tabrasi mentioned the Meccan and Medinah suras and the differences in reading each verse. Imam Tabrasi also depended on eloquent features, the Hadith, and the familiar cases in fiqh; therefore, his methods were linguistic, dogmatic and mysterious. He defamed the juristic reasoning and regarded the naskh (abrogation) of Quran as legal rules and focused on the infallibility of Ahlul Bait (pbut).