Studying the Literary-Exegetic Content in Abu Muslim Isfahani’s Majmaʿ al-Bayan and Analyzing it from the View of Other Exegetes

Abstract

The goal of this study is to analyze the literary-exegetic content of Abu Muslim Isfahani – his literary view in the process of exegesis – derived from Majmaʿ al-Bayān considering the view of other exegetes with the intent to refine some of the acceptable central content in the exegesis clearly and distinctively. In the present paper, through a descriptive-analytic method of research, we have strived to answer the following questions: which of the literary content of Abu Muslim in Majmaʿ al-Bayān is general, which of the addressed literary content is different or consistent with the views of Abu Muslim and other exegetes, and which is specific to him. The result of the study is that the effect of the selected literary content has been investigated in Abu Muslim’s exegesis of these verses and their differences with other exegeses. Among the views that are specific to him, some that can be indicated are the following: the referent of the Arabic pronoun hāʾ [2: 74], allegory [2: 230], and his belief in exaggeration and emphasis [2: 90 & 7: 150] and some of the content that is not different from the views of most exegetes and is common with them is the following: the type of alif and lām (Arabic letters that may come at the beginning of a word and can have different meanings) and their meaning regarding the word “human being” (insān) [76: 1], content such as the combination and meanings of lā (letters lāʾ and alif of Arabic) [56: 75 & 75: 1], the tone and combination of the phrase “then Allah increased their sickness” [2: 10] (Qarai translation), and the referent of the pronoun in [2: 74].

Keywords

• : abu muslim isfahani
• majmaʿ al-bayān
• literary exegesis
• exaggeration