Conventional pattern of Qur'anic interpretation: a critique

Introduction The more the distance between the time of Qur’anic revelation and any period later on, the stronger the need for the interpretation of its message! During the last fifteen centuries a number of interpretations of the Qur’an, in almost all the major languages of the world, have emerged. These works are mere reproduction and repetition of some early tafsirbooks in Arabic, including Jami‘ al-Bayan by Muhammad ibnJarir al-Tabari (d. 310 A.H.),Ahkamal-Qur’an by Abu Bakr al-Jassas (d. 370 A.H.),Al-Kashshaf ‘an Haqa’iq al-Tanzilby Mahmud ibn ‘Umar al-Zamakhshari (d. 538 A.H.), and Mafatih al-Ghaybby Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 606 A.H.). The four tafsirworks representfour trends respectively, traditional, jurisprudential, rational cum doctrinal, and rational cum philosophical. It appears that the mufassirunhave unanimity over the fundamental principles of tafsir: (1) the Qur’an interprets the Qur’an, (2) the Prophetic traditions elaborate the Qur’an, (3) views of the Companions (sahabah) and the Successors (tabi‘un) unfold the Qur’an, and (4) Judeo-Christian traditions help understand the historical narratives in the Qur’an. Yet, they have miserably failed to be common in their interpretation of the Qur’an. It is quite logical to investigate to find out what went wrong in the widely-applied principles of Qur’anic interpretation that despite similarity of applied principles the result is dissimilar