VII.—The Interpretation of the Qurʾān.
ʿIlmu ʾl-Uṣūl (علم الاصول), or the Exegesis of the Qurʾān, is a very important science, and is used by the Muslim divine to explain away many apparent or real contradictions. The most authoritative works on the ʿIlmu ʾl-Uṣūl of the Qurʾān, are Manāru ʾl-Uṣūl and its commentary, the Nūru ʾl-Anwār, and as-Suyūt̤ī’s Itqān (ed. by Sprenger). The various laws of interpretation laid down in these books are very complicated, requiring the most careful study. We have only space for a mere outline of the system.
The words (alfāz̤) of the Qurʾān are of four classes: K͟hāṣṣ, ʿĀmm, Mushtarak, and Muʾawwal.
(1) K͟hāṣṣ, Words used in a special sense. This speciality of sense is of three kinds: K͟huṣūṣu ʾl-jins, Speciality of genus, e.g. mankind; K͟huṣūṣu ʾn-nauʿ, Speciality of species, e.g. a man; K͟huṣūṣu ʾl-ʿain, Speciality of an individual, e.g. Muḥammad.
(2) ʿĀmm, Collective or common, which embrace many individuals or things, e.g. people.
(3) Mushtarak, Complex words which have several significations; e.g. ʿain, a word which signifies an Eye, a Fountain, the Knee, or the Sun.
(4) Muʾawwal, words which have several significations, all of which are possible, and so a special explanation is required. For example, [Sūrah cviii. 2], reads thus in Sale’s translation: “Wherefore pray unto the Lord and slay (the victims).” The word translated “slay” is in Arabic inḥar, from the root naḥr, which has several meanings. The followers of the great Legist, Abū Ḥanīfah, render it “sacrifice,” and add the words (the “victims”). The followers of Ibn Ash-Shāfiʿī say it means “placing the hands on the breast in prayer.”
II. The Sentences (ʿIbārah) of the Qurʾān are either Z̤āhir or K͟hafī, i.e. either Obvious or Hidden.
Obvious sentences are of four classes:—Z̤āhir, Naṣṣ, Mufassar, Muḥkam.
(1.) Z̤āhir.—Those sentences, the meaning of which is Obvious or clear, without any assistance from the context (qarīnah).