A Research in Some Hashiyahs of Anwar Al-Tanzil in Terms of the Status of Tafsir Among Islamic Sciences

Abstract

After the codification of Islamic sciences, an hierarchy was tried to be established among them. For the science of tafsir among these sciences, studies on the Qur'an in order to reveal the divine intention, some of the problems of tafsir, even if they are in the later sources, had been taken into consideration. Among the sources, in which these issues related to tafsir were discussed and examined, al-Baydawi's tafsir Anwar al-Tanzil plays an important role. Because the sharhs and hashiyahs on this tafsir reveal its effect on the literature to come. Al-Baydawi presents tafsir as the supreme of sciences in his introduction to tafsir, he then subsequently accepts it as the origin of the Islamic sciences since it forms the basis of the religious codes; but on the other hand, he estipulates a competency in religious and literary sciences, in order to be able to conduct a tafsir. In the sharhs and hashiyahs, depending on these judgments how tafsir is a superior science than others, and the problem of superiority of tafsir over kalam and hadith were specially discussed. In addition to these, the problems of tafsir ranking higher than other Islamic sciences due to its forming the basis for these sciences, and the acceptance of tafsir as a latter knowledge as it can only be done with the help of these other sciences were discussed. This article aims to examine the aforementioned problems.