A Semantic Study of Ijmāl and Tabyīn of the Holy Quran with a Narrative Approach

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Mohammad Reza Shahroudi ¹
• Mohammad Taghi Kebritchi ²

¹ Associate Professor, University of Tehran

² PhD Gradute in Quran and Hadith Sciences, University of Tehran

10.22067/jquran.2023.79547.1475

Abstract

The dispute over mujmal (unclear/comprehensive) and mubayyan (clear) as two attributes of the Holy Quran has been continuing and considerable, and the lack of decent understanding of it has caused objections regarding the existence of inherent ambiguity or defects in the word of God. This necessitates studying and understanding the basis and function of the mujmal and mubayyan in the Quran. By examining the terminology and studying the course of formation and evolution of the term mujmal, from its literal meaning to its contrast with the term mubayyan, and with the help of religious teachings and the semantic principles, we introduce the correct understanding of ijmāl, tabyīn (clarification) and tafsīr (interpretation) of the Holy Quran. As a result, ijmāl in the Quran simply means the conciseness and briefness of the word of God despite the completeness of its meanings, not its being unclear or incomplete. Also, tafsīr means discovering the meaning of the verses by the addressee or clarifying the meaning of the verses for the listeners, and tabyīn is explaining the meaning for the listeners who does not understand the meaning of the words due to the transcendence of the meaning or the lack of its situational context. For the first time, by distinguishing between the specific addressees and the subsequent listeners of each sort of verses, we could show that the brief and concise verses of the Quran were originally clear, complete and plain for their specific addressees, but the same verses may appear unclear to the subsequent listeners and lead them to refer to and ask the real scholars of the Quran (P.B.U.T.); for they can, by their comprehensive knowledge, interpret and explain the case, instance and meaning of all mujmal verses of the Quran for the listeners.

Keywords

• mujmal and mubayyan
• tafsīr al-Quran
• addressees of Quran
• listeners to Quran

Main Subjects

• Quran and Hadith Studies

---

References

ʿAbāsī, Mihrdād. “Tafsīr”, Dānishnāmih Jahān Islām. Tehran: Bunyād-i Dāyrah al-Maʿārif-i Islāmī. 2004/1382.

Ākhūnd Khurāsānī, Muḥammad Kāẓim ibn Ḥusayn. Kifāya al-Uṣūl. Qum: Āl al-Bayt (AS). Chāp-i Aval. s.d.

ʻAlam al-Hudā, ʻAlī ibn Ḥusayn. al-Dharīʻa Ilā Uṣūl al-Sharīʻa. Tehran, University of Tehran. Chāp-i Aval, 1998/1376.

Azharī, Muḥammad Ibn Aḥmad. Tahdhīb al-Lugha. Beirut: Dār Ihyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʻArabī. Chāp-i Aval, 2000/1421.

Bābāyī, ʻAlī Akbar. “Barrisī  va Naqd Ārāʾ-yi Suyūtī dar Āyāt-i Mujmal va Mubayyin Qurān Karīm”, Tafsīr vaʿUlūm Qurānī Hikmat Bālighah. no. 1, spring and summer 2022/1400, 7-22.

Barqī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. al-Maḥsin. ed. Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥaddith. Qum: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya. Chāp-i Duvūm, 1993/1371.

Bazzāz, Abū Bakr. Musnad al-Bazzāz. Madīnih: Maktaba al-ʻUlum  wa al-Ḥikam. Chāp-i Aval, 2009/1430.

Farāhīdī, Khalīl ibn Aḥmad. Kitāb al-ʻAyn. Qum: Hijrat. Chāp-i Aval, 1989/1409.

Farrāʾ, Yaḥyā  ibn Zīyād. Maʿānī Qurān lil-Farrāʾ. Miṣr: Dār al-Miṣrīya. Chāp-i Aval, s.d.

Fatāḥīzādih, Fatḥīyih, Fāṭimih Ḥabībī. “Barrisī Ārāʾ-yi Jalāl al-Dīn Suyūtī dar Ijmāl va Tabyīn Āyāt-i Qurān bā Miḥvarīyat-i Andīshih-hā-yi ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī”, Taḥqīqāt-i ʿUlum Qurān va Ḥadīth, no. 29, spring 2017/1395, 31-62.

Fayḍ Kāshānī, Muḥammad ibn Shāh Murtażā. Tafsīr al-Ṣāfī. Tehran: Maktaba Ṣadr. Chāp-i Duvūm, 1995/1416.

Fīrūzābādī, Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb. al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub-i ʿIlmīyya. Chāp-i Aval, 1994/1415.

Ghafārī, ʻAlī Akbar. Talkhīṣ Miqbās al-hidāya. Tehran: Imam Sadiq(AS) University. Chāp-i Aval. 1991/1369.

Ibn Bābawayh, Muḥammad ibn ʻAlī. Kitāb Man Lā Yaḥḍuruh al-Faqīh. ed.  ʻAlī Akbar Ghafārī. Qum: Daftar Intishārāt Islāmī. Chāp-i Duvum, 1993/1413.

Ibn Durayd, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan. Jamhara al-Lugha. Beirut: Dār al-ʻIlm. Chāp-i Aval, 1988/1408.

Ibn Fāris, Aḥmad ibn Fāris. Muʿjam  Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Qum: Maktab al-Iʻlām al-Islāmī. 1984/1404.

Ibn Ḥanbal, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. al-ʿAqīda Riwāya Abī Bakr al-Khallāl. Damascus: Dār  Qutbīyah. Chāp-i Aval, 1988/1408.

Ibn Ḥanbal, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. al-Jāmiʻ li-ʿUlūm al-Imām Aḥmad. Egypt: Dār  al-Falāḥ. Chāp-i Aval, 2009/1430.

Ibn Shahrāshūb, Muḥammad ibn ʻAlī. Manāqib Āl Abī Ṭālib. Qum: ʿAllāmah. Chāp-i Aval, 1960/1379.

Jaṣṣāṣ, Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī. al-Fuṣūl  fī Uṣūl. Kuwait: Wizārat al-Awqāf. Chāp-i Duvūm, 1993/1414.

Jawharī, Ismāʻīl  ibn Ḥammād. al-Ṣiḥāḥ: Tāj al-Lugha wa Ṣiḥāḥ ʿArabīya. Beirut: Dār al-ʻIlm. Chāp-i Aval, 1957/1376.

Kibrītchī, Muḥammad Taqī, Muḥammad Riżā Shāhrūdī. “Bāzkhānī Dilālat-i Zabānī dar Fahm va Tafsīr-i Kitāb va Sunat”, Falsafih va Kalām Islāmī. yr. 54, no. 1, spring and summer  2022/1400, 121-145.

Kulīnī, Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb. al-Kāfī. researched by ʻAlī Akbar Ghafārī. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya. Chāp-i Chāhārum, 1987/1407.

Maʿārif, Majīd. “Ijmāl va Tabyīn dar Rivāyāt”, Muṭāliʻāt-i Islāmī. no. 65-66, autumn and winter 2005/1383, 223-250.

Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir ibn Muḥammad Taqī. Biḥār al-Anwār. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Tūrāth al-ʻArabī. Chāp-i Duvūm, 1983/1403.

Muqrī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. Miṣbāḥ  al-Munīr. Qum: Dār al-Hijrah. Chāp-i Duvūm, 1993/1414.

Murtaḍā Zabīdī, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. Tāj al-ʿArūs min Jawāhir al-Qāmūn. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. Chāp-i Aval, 1790/1205.

Mūsavī, Fāṭimah. “Kāvushī Nū Darbārih-yi Mujmal dar Qurān”, Mishkāt. no. 117, winter 2013/1391, 62-84.

Muṣṭafavī, Ḥasan. Al-Taḥqīq fī Kalamāt al-Qurān al-Karīm. Tehran:  Vizārat-i Farhang va Irshād-i Islāmī. Chāp-i Aval, 1990/1368.

Muẓaffar, Muḥammad Riḍā. Uṣūl  al-Fiqh. Qum: Mūʾassisa al-Nashr al-Islāmī. Chāp  Panjum, 2009/1430.

Nikūnām, Jaʻfar. Dar Āmadī bar Maʻnāshināsī Qurān. Qum: Usul al Deen College. Chāp-i Aval, 2012/1390.

Pākatchī, Aḥmad. “Tafsīr”. Dāyrah al-Maʿārif-i Buzurg Islāmī. Tehran: Markaz Dāyrah al-Maʿārif Buzurg Islāmī. 2020/1398.

Pākatchī, Aḥmad. Tārīkh-i Tafsīr-i Qurān-i Karīm. Tehran: Imam Sadiq(AS) University. Chāp-i Duvūm, 2017/1395.

Qurṭabī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad. al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurān. Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣrīya. Chāp-i Duvūm, 2006/1384.

Rāghib Iṣfahānī, Ḥusayn  ibn Muḥammad. al-Mufradāt Alfāẓ Qurān. Damascus:  Dār al-Qalam. 1992/1412.

Ṣafīpūrī Shīrāzī, ʻAbd  al-Raḥīm. Muntahā al-Arab fī Lugha al-ʿArab. Tehran: Intishārāt-i University of Tehran. Chāp-i Aval. 2015/1393.

Samarqandī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad. Mīzān al-Uṣūl fī Natāʾij al-ʿUqūl. Miṣr: Ma ṭābiʿ al-Dūḥah al-Ḥadītha. Chāp-i Aval, 1984/1404.

Shāhrūdī,  Muḥammad Riżā, Muḥammad Taqī Kibrītchī. “Gūnihshināsī Mukhātabān-i  Qurān va Naqsh-i Ānān dar Fahm-i Maʻnā-yi Āyāt”. Muṭāliʻāt Qurānī va Farhang Islāmī. Durih-yi 6, no. 4, autumn and winter 2023/1401, 103-128.

Sharīf al-Raḍī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn. Nahj al-Balāgha. Qum: Hijrah. Chāp-i Aval. 1993/1414.

Shāshī, Niẓām al-Dīn. Uṣūl  al-Shāsh. Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʻArabī. Chāp-i Aval, s.d.

Suyūtī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn abī bakr. al-Itqān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurān. researched by  Fawwāz Aḥmad  Zamarlī. Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʻArabī. 2000/1421.

Ṭurayḥī, Fakhr al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad. Majmaʿ al-Baḥrayn. Tehran: Murtażavī. Chāp-i Sivum, 1997/1375.

Zamakhsharī, Maḥmūd ibn ʻUmar. al-Kashāf ʿan Ḥaqāʾiq Ghawāmiḍ al-Tanzīl. Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʻArabī. Chāp-i Sivum, 1987/1407.

Zarkashī, Muḥammad ibn Bahādur. al-Burhān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurān. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa. Chāp-i Aval,  1990/1410.