Al-Burhan fi tafsir al-Qur'an (book): Difference between revisions

| author = [[Sayyid Hashim al-Bahrani]]

'''''Al-Burhān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān''''' (Arabic: {{iarabic|البرهان فی تفسیر القرآن}}) is one of the most important Shi'ite narrative exegesis of [[Qur'an]] by [[Sayyid Hashim al-Bahrani]]. The author has discussed  different issues like [[Islamic sciences]], stories, nabawi [[hadith]]s (hadiths that narrated from [[the Prophet (s)]]) and the virtues of [[Ahl al-Bayt (a)]]. Al-Bahrani was an [[Akhbari]] and his exegesis was written in an akhbari manner. Some of the exegetists have criticized his work.

== The Author and His Motivation ==

{{Main|Sayyid Hashim al-Bahrani}}

Sayyid Hashim al-Bahrani, well known as ''''Allama al-Bahrani''' was one of the [[fiqh|faqih]]s, [[Muhaddith|traditionalist]]s and [[Shi'a]] exegetists in 11th/17th century and early 12th/18th century.

In the preface of his book, he stated that his motivation for writing the book was presenting a source for understanding interpretational theories and the teachings of [[Ahl al-Bayt (a)]] in [[Ta'wil]] and secrets of the [[Qur'an]].

== The Sources of al-Burhan ==

Al-Shaykh [[Mahdi al-Asifi]] writes:

"Despite his ample efforts in al-Burhan exegesis, there are some unauthentic and distorted [[hadith]]s which convey ideas of exaggeration ([[al-Ghuluw]]). It is more likely that the author didn't mean to refine [[unauthentic hadith]]s or he meant but it wasn't enough. He has used the sources that are accused for being distorted and has narrated some hadiths that have unreliable [[chain of transmitters]] and incoherent content. So, it can be concluded that ''al-Burhan'' is a beneficial scholarly effort for researchers who are familiar with the texts and are knowledgeable about reliable and coherent hadiths and are able to differentiate between authentic and unauthentic hadiths. The fact that this book contains some unauthentic hadiths doesn't mean that it is a worthless book but it is like ''[[Bihar al-anwar]]'' by [[al-'Allama al-Majlisi]] which has some unauthentic hadiths, but given this quality, it is a great work that is a huge help to Shiite library. However, gathering the hadiths is the first step and after that, the second step begins which is refinement the hadiths and differentiating the authentic and unauthentic narrations.  The third step is to extract general rules and fundamentals of the interpretational approach of [[Ahl al-Bayt (a)]]. Without completing all the three steps, it is not possible to benefit from the interpretational hadiths of Ahl al-Bayt (a)."

[[Ayatollah]] [[Muhammad Hadi Ma'rifat|Ma'rifat]] in his ''[[al-Tafsir wa al-mufassirun]]'' states:

"[[Al-Sayyid Hashim al-Bahrani]] is one of the accomplished [[Muhaddith|traditionalists]] who gathered hadiths. He didn't present any idea about the acceptance, rejection or compromise of the hadiths that are against reason or other narrations. "

"The author is one of the [[Akhbari]]s who believes that interpreting [[Qur'an]] is permissible only through the hadiths of Ahl al-Bayt (a) and interpretation through reasoning, [[ijtihad]] and spiritual taste is forbidden."