The Qur’ān as Fully Allegorical Revelation: An Analytical Study of Principled Opinions

قرآن مجید بحیثیت متشابہ کلی : اصولی مواقف کا تجزیاتی مطالعہ

Abstract

One of the significant attributes of the Qurʾān is tashābuh (تشابہ), which has been mentioned in various contexts within the Qurʾān itself. When this term is applied to the Qurʾān, its meaning extends beyond a merely lexical sense and encompasses entire verses. This naturally raises an important question: what does it mean to describe the Qurʾān as mutashābih, and in what sense does this attribute apply to it? While at one place the Qurʾān categorizes some of its verses as muḥkam and others as mutashābih, at another it refers to the whole Qurʾān as kitāban mutashābihan)’(کتاباً متشابھا. This apparent variation may give rise to the problem of whether tashābuh is a partial attribute of the Qurʾān or a universal one. If it is universal, what then is its precise implication? Does this characterization suggest an inherent ambiguity in the overall meaning of the Qurʾān, or does it point toward a different underlying reality? To address this fundamental question, the present study first examines the classification of muḥkam and mutashābih verses, and then analyzes the views of classical exegetes (mufassirūn) and scholars of ʿulūm al-Qurʾān regarding the notion of the Qurʾān as entirely mutashābih.