The Origin and Development of Objective-Based Tafsīr Across the Centuries

By Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Ali Abouseif, President of the American Imams Academy.

Objective-based tafsīr was not born as a finished technical term in a single day; rather its seeds grew with the descent of revelation, then advanced by stages until it became a methodical current. Understanding this development guards us against two illusions: the illusion that it is a newly invented heresy, and the illusion that it was a science of complete features from the very beginning.

First: The Seeds in the Era of Prophethood and the Companions

The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to draw attention to the objectives of legislation and its wisdoms, and at times he explained rulings by clarifying their goals, as in his saying — reported by Muslim — concerning the visiting of graves: "I had forbidden you from visiting graves, so visit them, for they remind you of the Hereafter" — here is an explicit link between the ruling and its objective. His Companions (may God be pleased with them) grasped the objectives of the verses and invested them in their understanding and application.

Among the most famous examples is the fiqh of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may God be pleased with him) regarding the interests and objectives of the texts in numerous cases; he would look to the goal of the ruling, not merely its form, as in his independent reasoning concerning the share of "those whose hearts are to be reconciled," when he considered the objective of the legislation and the condition of Islam in his time. All of this was an early intimation of objective-based inquiry, even if it was not called by this name; for the reality preceded the term, as is the case with most sciences.

Second: The Maturing of the Science of Objectives Among the Legal Theorists

With the codification of the principles of jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh), discourse on "the objectives of the Lawgiver" and "the interests" crystallized and became an independent chapter. Imām al-Ḥaramayn al-Juwaynī (d. 478 AH) discussed the ranks of interests in his book al-Burhān; his student Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505 AH) established in al-Mustaṣfā the concept of the five necessities (the preservation of religion, life, intellect, lineage, and property); and al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām (d. 660 AH) devoted his book Qawāʿid al-Aḥkām fī Maṣāliḥ al-Anām to establishing benefits and harms, until he was titled "the Sultan of the Scholars."

Then the theoretical grounding reached its great maturity at the hands of Abū Isḥāq al-Shāṭibī (d. 790 AH) in al-Muwāfaqāt, who formulated the theory of objectives in a tight, methodical formulation; he arranged the objectives into necessities, needs, and embellishments, and clarified the ways of uncovering the objectives of the Lawgiver. Thus al-Muwāfaqāt became the founding source from which everyone who spoke of objective-based tafsīr after him proceeds. So when the science of objectives matured in the field of uṣūl, it was natural for its effect to extend to the field of tafsīr.

Third: The Appearance of the Term in the Books of Tafsīr and the Objectives of the Sūras

Attention to objectives moved into the arena of tafsīr, so interest in "the objectives of the sūras," the coherence of their verses, and their unifying axis appeared. Works bearing the meaning in their titles emerged; among them Maṣāʿid al-Naẓar li-l-Ishrāf ʿalā Maqāṣid al-Suwar by Burhān al-Dīn al-Biqāʿī (d. 885 AH) — author of the great tafsīr Naẓm al-Durar, which attended to the coherence of verses and sūras — and Baṣāʾir Dhawī al-Tamyīz fī Laṭāʾif al-Kitāb al-ʿAzīz by Majd al-Dīn al-Fīrūzābādī (d. 817 AH), author of al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ.

Thus examining the objectives of the sūra and its unifying axis became a recognized tradition in the Qur'anic sciences, attending to the fact that each sūra has a personality and an objective around which it revolves, rather than being merely adjacent verses. This was an important shift that paved the way for modern objective-based tafsīr.

Fourth: The Crystallization in the Modern Era

In the modern era, attention to objectives widened and turned into a method of clear features under the pressure of the questions of revival and reform. The Manār school — Muḥammad ʿAbduh and Rashīd Riḍā — highlighted the guiding dimension of the Qur'an and its reformative goals, and drew attention to the fact that the objective of tafsīr is the guidance of the human being, not a mere display of topics.

Then al-Ṭāhir ibn ʿĀshūr grounded the science of objectives methodically in Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿa al-Islāmiyya, and applied attention to the objectives and aims of the sūras in his great tafsīr al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr. ʿAllāl al-Fāsī wrote Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿa al-Islāmiyya wa-Makārimuhā, adding the ethical dimension. Then contemporary scholarship devoted objective-based tafsīr to research, theorization, and application at the hands of such figures as Aḥmad al-Raysūnī, Waṣfī ʿĀshūr Abū Zayd, and Nūr al-Dīn Qarrāṭ, until it settled as a self-standing scholarly current with its own rules, questions, and terminology.

Thus it becomes clear that objective-based tafsīr is an authentic extension of a course that began with the intimations of revelation and the Companions, matured with the science of uṣūl, crystallized in the Qur'anic sciences, and then became methodical in the modern era; it is a child of the tradition, not a stranger to it.

This is followed by the fourth article: "The Grand Objectives of the Qur'an and the Goal of Objective-Based Tafsīr."

| A takeaway for life: Disciplined renewal is not a rupture with the tradition but an extension of it. When you read a contemporary objective-based effort, ask: upon what traditional foundation does it rest? If you find for it a root in al-Shāṭibī and those before and after him, you may be at ease with it, and you learn how renewal can be a connection rather than a severance. | |---|