Critical readings of the Qur’ānic term Mustaḍʿafūn (Marginalized) by al-Qummī and al-Ṭabarī : adopting an Islamic Liberation Theology approach

M.A.Abstract: This dissertation will compare and contrast two representations of Sunnī and Shī’ī readings of the Qur’ān with specific reference to the notion of the mustaḍʿafūn fi’l-arḍ (marginalised of the earth) and their inclusion or otherwise of the stranger in their elaboration of the term. The term, mustaḍʿafūn fi’l-arḍ, appears in the Qur’ān (Q. 28:5), “And We wanted to confer favor upon those who were oppressed in the land and make them leaders and make them inheritors”, along with several other related terms that denote socio-economic and political marginalities, such as ‘araḍīl’ (lowest), ‘masākīn’ (indigent) and ‘fuqarā’ (poor). The dissertation will evaluate the distinctive hermeneutical principles and assumptions employed by two major exegetes – one Shī’ī (‘Alī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Qummī (d. 919)) and the other Sunnī (Muḥammad ibn al-Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 923)), who may be regarded as representatives of these two schools. It will also examine the differences in their hermeneutical approaches to the Qur’ān, specifically addressing the question of the ‘marginalized’, in both the Shī’ī and Sunnī traditions. This dissertation will argue that the approaches of both the Sunnī and Shī’ī traditions are inadequate from an Islamic Liberation Theology perspective because they fail to directly, and in a plausible manner, address the major issues of the marginalised and other categories of marginalisation – the most important of which, for the purposes of this dissertation, being that of a ‘stranger’ or a ‘foreigner’. This dissertation will also look at how the verses on the mustaḍʿafūn and related themes are interpreted in the two samples of Sunnī and Shī’ī exegetical works. Furthermore, it will focus on how the term ‘mustaḍʿafūn’ is construed in the exegetical works of al-Qummī and al-Ṭabarī using the lens of ILT is concerned