This article examines debates over the khabarī (scriptural) divine attributes in early Qur’anic exegesis through a case study of Muqātil b. Sulaymān al-Balkhī (d. 150/767). Framed by the analytical dyad of text and context, it asks how anthropomorphic and corporealist readings emerged in the first/early second century AH and what cultural matrices shaped them. Methodologically, the study combines a historical‑inductive reading of Muqātil’s tafsīr in its primary textual witnesses, a deconstructive analysis of his interpretive system, and a critical analytical comparison of selected motifs—corporeality, istiwāʾ as “sitting,” the throne and its bearers, the kursī, and the Adam creation narrative. The findings suggest that literalist anthropomorphic exegesis crystallized in the multilingual eastern Islamic lands, especially Khurāsān/Central Asia, where local religious traditions and “Eastern” theological imaginaries plausibly informed the reception of Qur’anic descriptions of God; this influence is advanced as a text and context based hypothesis rather than a claim of demonstrable direct borrowing. The article also maps early scholarly critiques that problematized Muqātil’s approach in tafsīr and ḥadīth. By foregrounding intertextuality and acculturation, the study offers a methodological pathway for linking early exegetical discourse to its socio‑cultural environments and reassessing the genealogy of anthropomorphism in formative tafsīr.
Despite extensive debates on ḥūr in Qur’anic exegesis, the imagery of paradise is still frequently read through patriarchal assumptions that reduce female figures to sensual reward and obscure the Qur’an’s ethical and ecological horizon. This article aims to critique patriarchal readings of ḥūr as feminized paradisiacal reward and to propose a khalīfah–mīzān-guided eco-tafsīr that reorients Qur’anic “beauty” toward gender and ecological justice. The study uses qualitative, text-based research through comparative hermeneutical tafsīr analysis of Qur’anic passages on ḥūr and related ethical principles (khalīfah and mīzān), employing lexical–semantic analysis, close reading, and cross-tafsīr comparison. The findings show that patriarchal interpretations are sustained by an androcentric dualism that separates humans from nature and legitimizes domination, whereas a khalīfah–mīzān framework enables a relational reading that affirms women’s subjectivity and shifts beauty away from commodification toward ecological intimacy. Overall, this approach offers a text-grounded pathway for reading paradise imagery as an ethical horizon that integrates gender justice with ecological responsibility.
Purpose oriented readings of the Qur’an often articulated through maqāṣid (objectives) have become increasingly visible in reform-oriented discourse, yet the scholarly status of maqāṣid Al-Qur’an remains contested and still in the making. Against this backdrop, Al-Hidāyāt Al-Qur’aniyyah, a large institutional initiative affiliated with Umm Al-QuraUniversity, proposes a guidance centered (hudā) program that systematizes verse level “guidance” (hidāyāt) as actionable outputs. This article offers a contrastive comparison between hudā and maqāṣid centered programs using a qualitative, text centered approach. The primary corpus is Al-Hidāyāt Al-Qur’aniyyah: Dirāsah Ta’shīliyyah (Vols. I–II), read as the project’s programmatic self-articulation; the comparator corpus is maqāṣid Qur’ān programmatic literature, with particular reference to Al-Maqāṣid Al-Kubrā li-l-Qur’ān, which distinguishes major objectives from detailed Guidance (tafṣīlī/ʿamalī). The findings reconstruct four epistemological patterns in Al-Hidāyāt, hudā as telos, non-operationalization of a maqāṣid hierarchy, Salaf authorized epistemic layering, and an applicative output genre and show, via the comparator’s own taxonomy, how maqāṣid and hidāyāt differ in object of inquiry, scale, inferential routes, and extensibility. A worked textual example (Q 2:275–279) demonstrates how each program scales normative output from the same passage. The article contributes a comparator grounded framework for studying teleological competition in contemporary Qur’anic hermeneutics and highlights the growing role of institutional infrastructures in shaping exegetical authority.
This study examines the conceptual structure of “disease (maraḍ) within the Qur’anic lexicon, aiming to elucidate the epistemic network of Qur’anic maqāṣid dedicated to preserving human life and its environment. The central research problem lies in how the Qur’an articulates its vision of pathogenic afflictions that obstruct the realization of core human existential objectives, particularly the preservation of life- the foundational maqṣad in Islamic thought. As temporal and spatial conditions change, certain complementary (taḥsīniyyah) objectives may ascend to the rank of necessities (ḍarūriyyāt). The study’s significance rests in demonstrating the adaptability of Qur’anic maqāṣid across time and place, and their role in securing dignified human existence through safeguarding indispensable objectives: religion, intellect, lineage, property, and life itself. It also highlights the aesthetic-ethical philosophy embedded in relevant verses concerning societal privacy and personal dignity. Methodologically, the study adopts an inductive approach to pertinent Qur’anic verses, lexical-semantic analysis, and a historical survey of maqāṣid-oriented exegesis. This framework illuminates how the sacred text addresses pathogenic threats, ensures civilizational continuity, and manifests a distinctive lexical paradigm compared to post-Qur’anic Arabic lexicons. Key findings reveal that the Qur’an systematically links disease and cure to their causes while emphatically advocating preventive measures to curb epidemics, thereby reaffirming the enduring capacity of the Islamic normative framework to address contemporary challenges without compromising its ethical constants.
The establishment of universal standards embedded in hadith—framed as legal objectives—underwent a process of generalization, wherein their function served to justify Qur'anic content. Consequently, the primary role of hadith as a lawmaker and moral guide was marginalized in discourses on goal-based (maqāṣid) development. This study seeks to identify a systematic method for interpreting hadith by drawing on the standards of its discursive construction, which accounts for the Prophet’s flexible role as a discourse producer. To this end, the study employs a qualitative methodology grounded in constructive grounded theory. It finds that the discourse of hadith transmission—centered on the conveyance of meaning—necessitates a model of textual verification (taḥqīq al-naṣṣ) as its core component. This mechanism involves tracing variant hadiths on the same theme to discern differences in editorial structure that influence their core and relational meanings. In turn, it facilitates the identification of interpretive models for key words and particles that convey meaning. Textual composition further demands a comprehensive examination of legal practices within the earliest recipient community to establish standards for means and ends. The application of these methodological standards yields a novel interpretive framework for hadiths concerning the creation of humans in God’s image. Specifically, the analysis of word patterns in their general and particular forms reveals an intentional prohibition on depicting the face, aimed at preserving human honor and dignity as God’s creations. Ultimately, clarifying these means and purposes creates space for innovative prohibition models that prevent fictitious or verbal acts degrading any aspect symbolizing humanity.
